Opinion Proof that criticism of the Israeli lobby, is defended by the lie of anti-semitism

[VivaRevolution]

Ha!!!!!!!!! Couldn't make this up.

PRO-ISRAEL LOBBY CAUGHT ON TAPE BOASTING THAT ITS MONEY INFLUENCES WASHINGTON

A DEBATE ABOUT the power in Washington of the pro-Israel lobby is underway, after Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., responded sharply to reports that Republican leader Kevin McCarthy was targeting both Omar and fellow Muslim Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan.

Omar quoted rap lyrics — “It’s all about the Benjamins baby” — to suggest McCarthy’s move was driven by the lobby’s prolific spending. Asked specifically who she was referring to, Omar responded, “AIPAC!”

The debate over the influence of pro-Israel groups could be informed by an investigation by Al Jazeera, in which an undercover reporter infiltrated The Israel Project, a Washington-based group, and secretly recorded conversations about political strategy and influence over a six-month period in 2016. That investigation, however, was never aired by the network — suppressed by pressure from the pro-Israel lobby.

In November, Electronic Intifada obtained and published the four-part series, but it did so during the week of the midterm elections, and the documentary did not get a lot of attention then.

In it, leaders of the pro-Israel lobby speak openly about how they use money to influence the political process, in ways so blunt that if the comments were made by critics, they’d be charged with anti-Semitism.

“Congressmen and senators don’t do anything unless you pressure them.”
David Ochs, founder of HaLev, which helps send young people to AIPAC’s annual conference, described for the reporter how AIPAC and its donors organize fundraisers outside the official umbrella of the organization, so that the money doesn’t show up on disclosures as coming specifically from AIPAC. He describes one group that organizes fundraisers in both Washington and New York. “This is the biggest ad hoc political group, definitely the wealthiest, in D.C.,” Ochs says, adding that it has no official name, but is clearly tied to AIPAC. “It’s the AIPAC group. It makes a difference, it really, really does. It’s the best bang for your buck and the networking is phenomenal.” (Ochs and AIPAC did not immediately return The Intercept’s requests for comment.)

Without spending money, Ochs argues, the pro-Israel lobby isn’t able to enact its agenda. “Congressmen and senators don’t do anything unless you pressure them. They kick the can down the road, unless you pressure them, and the only way to do that is with money,” he explains.




https://theintercept.com/2019/02/11/ilhan-omar-israel-lobby-documentary/

Waiting on the fact check on Omar's claim?

Naw, fake news only fact checks what they want.

 

[NoDak]

Ha!!!!!!!!! Couldn't make this up.
PRO-ISRAEL LOBBY CAUGHT ON TAPE BOASTING THAT ITS MONEY INFLUENCES WASHINGTON

It's so ridiculous. People ask what people are talking about with fake news. Look at this story. Look at the tusli Gabbard propaganda.

They are bold faced fucking liars. Fuck the media.

Trump loves fake news. He just doesn't like the fake news that is mean to him.

Lolz @ "Stack chips like [Hebrews]" being censored out given the content. What a timeless banger though, didn't think it would still sound so fresh over two decades later. Kim bodied this track.

 

[VivaRevolution]

he never praised the shooting. little has always called for a non violent solution

I mean, if you got kicked off Gab, that is like getting kicked off 4 Chan. I'm pretty sure you have to murder a puppy on live stream on those sites for that to happen.

 

[Ruprecht]

he never praised the shooting. little has always called for a non violent solution

Yes he did. I posted his post.

Spoiler

 

[Ruprecht]

I mean, if you got kicked off Gab, that is like getting kicked off 4 Chan. I'm pretty sure you have to murder a puppy on live stream on those sites for that to happen.

GAB didn't kick him off for all the antisemitic guff he constantly spouts, if you've ever been there you know they are fine with outright hitler worshipping, neo-nazi scum. According to their statement they kicked him off because they felt he'd crossed the line into a, “true threat or harassment scenario.”

 

[VivaRevolution]

GAB didn't kick him off for all the antisemitic guff he constantly spouts, if you've ever been there you know they are fine with outright hitler worshipping, neo-nazi scum. According to their statement they kicked him off because they felt he'd crossed the line into a, “true threat or harassment scenario.”

Makes sense. Harassment and violence are illegal. Gab and 4 Chan are great. I'm glad we have places that aren't censored at all, where even gross speech is allowed. As offensive speech at the moment is still legal.

Now, I don't really go to those places, because they are toxic, but I'm still glad they exist.

 

[Ruprecht]

Makes sense. Harassment and violence are illegal. Gab and 4 Chan are great. I'm glad we have places that aren't censored at all, where even gross speech is allowed. As offensive speech at the moment is still legal.

Now, I don't really go to those places, because they are toxic, but I'm still glad they exist.

Scum pits. I don't care about them being "toxic", and I suppose it could make them easier to monitor, but as the Pitsburgh shooting shows these cretins feed off it as a support network.
Much like PRQ hosting the NAMBLA site in support of "free speech".

 

[NoDak]

Waiting on the fact check on Omar's claim?

Naw, fake news only fact checks what they want.

https://www.thenation.com/article/ady-barkan-aipac-ilhan-omar/

By Monday morning, AIPAC had mobilized its allies to condemn Omar’s comment for playing into centuries-old anti-Semitic tropes that wealthy Jews control the world. Even the Democratic leadership put out a statement condemning her. All because she dared to point out that the emperor has no clothes.

As a Jew, an Israeli citizen, and a professional lobbyist (ahem, activist), I speak from personal experience when I say that AIPAC is tremendously effective, and the lubricant that makes its operation hum is dollar, dollar bills.

AIPAC’s power is about more than money, certainly. It’s about great organizing. It’s about diligence. Their lobbyists on the Hill are the best in the business, and their legislator junkets to the Holy Land are masterfully orchestrated. But money is central to the whole system.

Technically, AIPAC doesn’t make the political contributions. Instead, as it notes proudly on its website, individual members of its “Congressional Club" do the bundling and donating directly, both as individuals and through Political Action Committees that AIPAC and its members have set up.

Omar is right to point all this out. These dynamics are not unique to the Israel-Palestine issue, however, and there is no reason that Americans should be surprised or offended by what she or I are saying.

AIPAC and its partners, which include Christian Zionists and military contractors, are a central pillar of the Israeli occupation. Without congressional support, the Likud/anti-Palestine/pro-occupation project would be radically undermined. The money that AIPAC and the rest of the lobby spend is indispensable to that work. That’s why they spend it. Pointing this out is not anti-Semitic.

The Israel lobby flexed its muscles in response to Omar’s tweet. Almost all of Capitol Hill, sadly including the Democratic leadership that I have supported, was up in arms. It flexed with equal potency last month in marshaling through the Senate a clearly unconstitutional law to ban speech promoting a boycott of Israel.

I am speaking up now because it may be my last chance. Although I am only 35, I am dying. As I write these words, I am sitting with my wife in the waiting room of the Santa Barbara hospital emergency room, slowly bleeding from my stomach into a pile of gauze. I had a feeding tube inserted four days ago but it isn’t healing properly.

I am losing the ability to swallow, because I have ALS, a poorly understood neurological disease with no treatment, which seized my body 28 months ago and has basically paralyzed me since. My hands do not work and almost nobody can understand my mumbling, so I am using amazing technology that tracks the location of my eyes and allows me to slowly type out these words with my pupil-tips.

This is my chance to redeem my Jewish guilt, to speak out against the oppression that is being perpetrated in my name, and I do not intend to let a minor obstacle like ALS stop me.

Young Jews across America increasingly agree with Omar and me, and that is making the Israel lobby very nervous. As it should: The occupation is too immoral, illegal, and inhumane to survive an open and honest conversation in the marketplace of ideas. That is why AIPAC and its associates work to silence criticism of Israel by accusing its detractors of anti-Semitism and claiming that nobody may ever talk about how the Israel lobby uses money to build power.

The ugly truth is that the Israel lobby, like other powerful lobbies led by Jew and gentile alike, wields its money strategically and effectively. Outrage should be directed not at those who point this out (most often Muslims and people of color) but at the suffering of the Palestinian people and the simultaneous dependence of the Republican Party on genuine anti-Semites.

I do not expect to live to see the liberation of the Palestinian people but I maintain hope that my toddler son will. If he does, it will be because young American Jews like him do the honest self-reflection taught by our forebears, take pride in our tradition of justice, and join in solidarity and struggle with fellow Semites like Omar.

 

[VivaRevolution]

https://www.thenation.com/article/ady-barkan-aipac-ilhan-omar/

By Monday morning, AIPAC had mobilized its allies to condemn Omar’s comment for playing into centuries-old anti-Semitic tropes that wealthy Jews control the world. Even the Democratic leadership put out a statement condemning her. All because she dared to point out that the emperor has no clothes.

As a Jew, an Israeli citizen, and a professional lobbyist (ahem, activist), I speak from personal experience when I say that AIPAC is tremendously effective, and the lubricant that makes its operation hum is dollar, dollar bills.

AIPAC’s power is about more than money, certainly. It’s about great organizing. It’s about diligence. Their lobbyists on the Hill are the best in the business, and their legislator junkets to the Holy Land are masterfully orchestrated. But money is central to the whole system.

Technically, AIPAC doesn’t make the political contributions. Instead, as it notes proudly on its website, individual members of its “Congressional Club" do the bundling and donating directly, both as individuals and through Political Action Committees that AIPAC and its members have set up.

Omar is right to point all this out. These dynamics are not unique to the Israel-Palestine issue, however, and there is no reason that Americans should be surprised or offended by what she or I are saying.

AIPAC and its partners, which include Christian Zionists and military contractors, are a central pillar of the Israeli occupation. Without congressional support, the Likud/anti-Palestine/pro-occupation project would be radically undermined. The money that AIPAC and the rest of the lobby spend is indispensable to that work. That’s why they spend it. Pointing this out is not anti-Semitic.

The Israel lobby flexed its muscles in response to Omar’s tweet. Almost all of Capitol Hill, sadly including the Democratic leadership that I have supported, was up in arms. It flexed with equal potency last month in marshaling through the Senate a clearly unconstitutional law to ban speech promoting a boycott of Israel.

I am speaking up now because it may be my last chance. Although I am only 35, I am dying. As I write these words, I am sitting with my wife in the waiting room of the Santa Barbara hospital emergency room, slowly bleeding from my stomach into a pile of gauze. I had a feeding tube inserted four days ago but it isn’t healing properly.

I am losing the ability to swallow, because I have ALS, a poorly understood neurological disease with no treatment, which seized my body 28 months ago and has basically paralyzed me since. My hands do not work and almost nobody can understand my mumbling, so I am using amazing technology that tracks the location of my eyes and allows me to slowly type out these words with my pupil-tips.

This is my chance to redeem my Jewish guilt, to speak out against the oppression that is being perpetrated in my name, and I do not intend to let a minor obstacle like ALS stop me.

Young Jews across America increasingly agree with Omar and me, and that is making the Israel lobby very nervous. As it should: The occupation is too immoral, illegal, and inhumane to survive an open and honest conversation in the marketplace of ideas. That is why AIPAC and its associates work to silence criticism of Israel by accusing its detractors of anti-Semitism and claiming that nobody may ever talk about how the Israel lobby uses money to build power.

The ugly truth is that the Israel lobby, like other powerful lobbies led by Jew and gentile alike, wields its money strategically and effectively. Outrage should be directed not at those who point this out (most often Muslims and people of color) but at the suffering of the Palestinian people and the simultaneous dependence of the Republican Party on genuine anti-Semites.

I do not expect to live to see the liberation of the Palestinian people but I maintain hope that my toddler son will. If he does, it will be because young American Jews like him do the honest self-reflection taught by our forebears, take pride in our tradition of justice, and join in solidarity and struggle with fellow Semites like Omar.

Corporate/AIPAC Dems need to go.

 

[VivaRevolution]

Scum pits. I don't care about them being "toxic", and I suppose it could make them easier to monitor, but as the Pitsburgh shooting shows these cretins feed off it as a support network.
Much like PRQ hosting the NAMBLA site in support of "free speech".

That maybe true, but it was just as true when the supreme Court allowed KKK marches. The potential for a crime, should not be considered a crime.

 

[Protagoras]

A lot of anti-Semitic canards up in here.

Didn’t you goy — I mean guys know that the Jews have literally never done anything wrong ever in the history of the world?

Never forget the the six gorillian.

 

[NoDak]

Corporate/AIPAC Dems need to go.

Heh.

 

[VivaRevolution]

Heh.

I swear this is a big part of the reason Trump is pushing for a wall, and why when Dems give ground and offer funding, they say it is for physical barriers, instead of a wall.

I think the dirty little secret of Trump's wall, might be that it throws shade for Israel.

 

[NoDak]

I really don't understand.

Where is the anti-semitic part?

Explain to me how you are supposed to interpret AIPAC's work?

Is it anti-semitic to just point out that AIPAC exist and what they literally do?

This is a grand shitshow. Trump calling for resignation.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/11/us/politics/ilhan-omar-anti-semitism.html

The verbal altercation between Ms. Pelosi and Ms. Omar was only the latest example of the speaker stepping in to try to keep her diverse and unruly caucus in line. She finagled her own election to the speakership, threw some subtle cold water on Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s ambitious “Green New Deal” and tamped down aggressive talk of impeaching President Trump. In the coming days she may again have to step in to pass an immigration and border security deal that is likely to anger the most liberal wing of the House.

But even as Democrats in Congress condemned Ms. Omar, her fierce and persistent criticism of Israel is exposing tensions within the broader party, with younger liberals increasingly willing to accuse the Jewish state of human rights abuses while older stalwarts like Ms. Pelosi stand firmly behind it. Republicans, sensing an opportunity to woo Jewish voters, have sought to exploit those divisions, and on Monday evening, Mr. Trump weighed in.

“I think she should be ashamed of herself,” the President told reporters, referring to Ms. Omar. “I think it was a terrible statement and I don’t think her apology was adequate.”

At the same time, Ms. Pelosi is facing questions from Republicans in Congress about whether she went far enough. When Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, made comments embracing white supremacy, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, stripped him of his committee assignments and the House passed a resolution condemning his words.

Mr. McCarthy, who was accused of anti-Semitism himself this fall when he said the billionaires George Soros, Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer were trying to buy the election, has demanded that Ms. Pelosi do the same with Ms. Omar. She serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee — a plum assignment that puts her in a position to influence American policy in the Middle East.

 

[NoDak]

@Kafir-kun Your silence is deafening.

 

[Phr3121]

I believe that to be Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil. The new President. Not sure why he is raising the Israeli flag, but there is a high population of Jews in Brazil. Arabs too.

 

[Phr3121]

A lot of anti-Semitic canards up in here.

Really? Where?

Didn’t you guys know that the Jews have literally never done anything wrong ever in the history of the world?

No. Did not know that. IDF killing Palestinian women and children was the right thing to do? But the Holocaust allows them to get away with just about anything. Nothing learned from that experience. Only hate and payback.

 

[Islam Imamate]

This is a grand shitshow. Trump calling for resignation.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/11/us/politics/ilhan-omar-anti-semitism.html

The verbal altercation between Ms. Pelosi and Ms. Omar was only the latest example of the speaker stepping in to try to keep her diverse and unruly caucus in line. She finagled her own election to the speakership, threw some subtle cold water on Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s ambitious “Green New Deal” and tamped down aggressive talk of impeaching President Trump. In the coming days she may again have to step in to pass an immigration and border security deal that is likely to anger the most liberal wing of the House.

But even as Democrats in Congress condemned Ms. Omar, her fierce and persistent criticism of Israel is exposing tensions within the broader party, with younger liberals increasingly willing to accuse the Jewish state of human rights abuses while older stalwarts like Ms. Pelosi stand firmly behind it. Republicans, sensing an opportunity to woo Jewish voters, have sought to exploit those divisions, and on Monday evening, Mr. Trump weighed in.

“I think she should be ashamed of herself,” the President told reporters, referring to Ms. Omar. “I think it was a terrible statement and I don’t think her apology was adequate.”

At the same time, Ms. Pelosi is facing questions from Republicans in Congress about whether she went far enough. When Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, made comments embracing white supremacy, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, stripped him of his committee assignments and the House passed a resolution condemning his words.

Mr. McCarthy, who was accused of anti-Semitism himself this fall when he said the billionaires George Soros, Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer were trying to buy the election, has demanded that Ms. Pelosi do the same with Ms. Omar. She serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee — a plum assignment that puts her in a position to influence American policy in the Middle East.

What did she even say beyond criticizing the influence of AIPAC? Did she even saying anything explicitly antisemitic? It seems like all of the political establishment just reflexively accused her of antisemitism because she is critical of Israel and because she is Muslim though to be fair Muslims are hardly the only ones to face this kind of shit.

 

[Islam Imamate]

@Kafir-kun Your silence is deafening.

Was going to make a thread on it like a day or two ago but looked up if there was one already and found this one. The story honestly confuses me because I don't see how what she said is antisemitic unless you assume any criticism of Israel or Israeli influence in American politics is antisemitic.

 

[mrbaapt]

Why did Republicans vote for Trump? He was on his knees for Israel and Saudi Arabia throughout his entire campaign. Hard to be a nationalist when your policies serve foreign powers.