Obama ushers in the crisis of the Israel lobby

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

http://mondoweiss.net/2015/08/ushers-crisis-israel

Yesterday’s speech shows that President Obama has also read The Israel Lobby and that its central points have become his chief concerns: The Israel lobby is a loose but powerful coalition of Israel supporters who will distort policy at every turn out of the sincere misguided belief that the US and Israel have the same interests; that coalition of conservative Jews in league with Republican hawks played a critical role in starting the Iraq war that has been an unmitigated disaster for our foreign policy. I have argued here for a long time that we won’t defeat the war party till we identify its true cause, and Obama all but did so explicitly yesterday. “Every nation in the world that has commented publicly” supports this deal, except Israel, he said. And Israel has many friends in this country, including the president himself, he said.

Then he called out the “mindset” in the U.S. that opposes the deal as a mindset of warmongers. The same “mindset” that gave us the Iraq war will leave us no alternative but military strikes on Iran, and none of the advocates of that mindset have to go off and fight these wars themselves.

Never before have I heard Obama go step by step over why he was right to oppose the Iraq war, 13 years after the fact. But he is trying to defeat that “mindset,” which as Paul Pillar says, he can’t identify too explicitly because of political orthodoxies in D.C. Though he said that mindset’s paranoia and reliance on force are inconsistent with American values and he’d be “abrogating” his constitutional duty if he sided with Netanyahu on the Iran Deal.

- See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/08/ushers-crisis-israel#sthash.ZwSXSEtX.dpuf

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

1. More...

Here are about 20 Democrats meeting the Israeli president yesterday. Why are they in Israel right now when they could be talking about income inequality or global warming or #BlackLivesMatter with their constituents back home? Because that’s where the money is.

Because that’s where the money is.



Which public do these politicians serve?

[Faux pas]

2. Kick!!!

[Hydra]

3. Obama's speech was another glimpse into the real leader he could be

He hit all the right notes, and called out all the right people. It sucks that most of the time he probably feels politically hamstrung, so that he is not "allowed" to do that.

[oberliner]

4. OMG Mondoweiss

How is this site still allowed here?

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

5. "How is this site still allowed here?"

This site is still allowed on DU because...

1) They tell the uncomfortable truths that hasbara central would try to disappear from DUers so they can make their own minds up, and

2) Hasbara central can't really bullshit their way out of the fact of point #1.

[Little Tich]

6. Why don't you post some articles that reflect a more pro-Israel POV?

As it is right now, there's very little posted in this forum that supports a pro-Israel view.