Israeli Actions in the Americas
Archive: 2007

U.S. JCS Chief Tries To Calm Israelis Over Iran  12/17/2007 Defense News: "U.S. officials insisted the trip was not aimed at controlling damage from the controversial National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), but Mullen’s visit allowed officials to vent frustrations over findings that Tehran had suspended its nuclear weapon program and was now less intent on acquiring atomic arms. In a Dec. 11 interview, an Israeli official conceded that presentations by Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, director of military intelligence, contained no new data or supporting evidence that had not already been shared with U.S. allies. Nevertheless, he said, the briefing provided a thorough chronological accounting and methodological explanation of how Israeli analysts arrived at conclusions that ran counter to the NIE, released Dec. 3. According to the official, Mullen repeatedly tried to assuage Israeli angst over the damage the downgraded U.S. threat estimate would inflict on efforts to rally international opposition to Iran’s uranium enrichment program. “The chairman insisted he still viewed Iran as a significant threat to the region, and that was nice. But so what? The damage from the NIE is already done,” he said."

Prison interrogation techniques in Israel: Now you are paralyzed, as we promised  12/14/2007 Global Research 

Public Committee Against Torture in Israel  12/14/2007 StopTorture.org 

Bush Embarks on Saudi-Brokered Deal with Tehran  12/8/2007 Debka 

Bush Drops Military Option, Tehran Slams Door on Diplomacy  12/3/2007 Debka 

Cut Israel Off  11/17/2007 AntiWar: "It is not just the Muslim world that hates our pro-Israel foreign policy, for sound reasons that it is unjust and cruel. Europeans and others around the world are contemptuous of America's slavelike obedience to a small foreign power. It has gotten to the point that to be seen as an ally of the United States is viewed negatively. The Arab and Muslim people, with the exception of al-Qaeda, don't hate America or Americans. It is the pro-Israel foreign policy and, of course, our invasions of two Muslim countries that they hate. Virtually all of the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim propaganda generated in this country has its source in the Israeli lobby and in Israel itself. Thanks to the unconstitutional largess of the cowardly Congress, Israel is a rich country and one of the world's leading military powers. It doesn't need American aid. It is time to quit dancing to the tune of a lobby with dual loyalties and to pursue America's interests. Americans are being betrayed by their own politicians, and it's time to treat those scoundrels with the contempt they deserve."

Congress and the Israel Lobby - The Politics of Servility  11/7/2007 Counterpunch 

Sarkozy accused of working for Israeli intelligence  11/3/2007 Al Ahram: "As if his marital challenges were not enough cause for concern, "Sarco the Sayan" has suddenly emerged as the most infamous accolade of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The influential French daily Le Figaro last week revealed that the French leader once worked for -- and perhaps still does, it hinted -- Israeli intelligence as a sayan (Hebrew for helper), one of the thousands of Jewish citizens of countries other than Israel who cooperate with the katsas (Mossad case-officers). A letter dispatched to French police officials late last winter -- long before the presidential election but somehow kept secret -- revealed that Sarkozy was recruited as an Israeli spy. The French police is currently investigating documents concerning Sarkozy's alleged espionage activities on behalf of Mossad, which Le Figaro claims dated as far back as 1983. According to the author of the message, in 1978, Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin ordered the infiltration of the French ruling Gaullist Party, Union pour un Mouvement Populaire. Originally targeted were Patrick Balkany, Patrick Devedjian and Pierre Lellouche. In 1983, they recruited the "young and promising" Sarkozy, the "fourth man"."

We Are Change NYC Confronts Norman Podhoretz!!  11/2/2007 We Are Change NYC 

Furl the flag - Gamal Nkrumah reflects on Sarkozy's bad week  10/25/2007 Al Ahram Weekly: "As if his marital challenges were not enough cause for concern, "Sarco the Sayan" has suddenly emerged as the most infamous accolade of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The influential French daily Le Figaro last week revealed that the French leader once worked for -- and perhaps still does, it hinted -- Israeli intelligence as a sayan (Hebrew for helper), one of the thousands of Jewish citizens of countries other than Israel who cooperate with the katsas (Mossad case-officers)."

Academic Freedom is at Risk in America  10/18/2007 Counterpunch: "Over the past few years, Israel's U.S. defenders have stepped up their campaign by establishing a network of institutions (such as Campus Watch, Stand With Us, the David Project, the Israel on Campus Coalition, and the disingenuously named Scholars for Peace in the Middle East) dedicated to the task of monitoring our campuses and bringing pressure to bear on those critical of Israeli policies. By orchestrating letter-writing and petitioning campaigns, falsely raising fears of anti-Semitism, mobilizing often grossly distorted media coverage and recruiting local and national politicians to their cause, they have severely disrupted academic processes, the free function of which once made American universities the envy of the world. Outside interference by Israel's supporters has plunged one U.S. campus after another into crisis. They have introduced crudely political -- rather than strictly academic or scholarly -- criteria into hiring, promotion and other decisions at a number of universities, including Columbia, Yale, Wayne State, Barnard and DePaul, which recently denied tenure to the Jewish American scholar Norman Finkelstein following an especially ugly campaign spearheaded by Alan Dershowitz, one of Israel's most ardent American defenders."

Why Pollard Should Never Be Released (The Traitor)  10/15/2007 New Yorker: published 1/18/1999

Les étranges accusations d'un cybercorbeau  10/12/2007 Le Figaro: "La PJ enquête sur un courriel envoyé durant la présidentielle à cent hauts responsables de la police. Il affirmait que Sarkozy, comme Balkany, Lellouche, Devedjian et Aeschlimann, étaient liés au Mossad."

Israel worried by Turk-Armenian debate  10/11/2007 AP: "During a visit to Israel this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan pressed Israel to use its influence in Washington to help kill a congressional effort to label the bloodshed as genocide. Babacan warned that Turkey's friendly relations with Israel and the United States could suffer if the genocide resolution was approved. President Bush is urging Congress to defeat it, pointing to the importance of Turkey as an ally in the Middle East."

Where Did AIPAC Come From?  10/9/2007 AntiWar: "In the summer of 1954, Israel conducted a covert false-flag operation in Egypt known as "Operation Susannah." Israeli agents launched terrorist bombing attacks against U.S. -, British-, and Egyptian-owned targets in Egypt. Since 1950, it had been U.S. policy to pressure the British to withdraw from the Suez Canal and abandon two treaties: the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, which made the canal a neutral zone under British control, and the Convention of Constantinople. Israel feared that a British withdrawal would remove a check on Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser's military ambitions. After Israel's diplomatic efforts failed to convince the British to stay, Israel unleashed a false-flag terrorist operation designed to convince the British to stay while framing the Egyptians. Israeli Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon was forced to resign because of the incident, and the scandal came to bear his name. The break between Ben-Gurion and Eshkol occurred over Ben-Gurion's insistence on fully investigating and learning lessons from the sordid Lavon Affair. Eshkol was insistent that investigating the affair was a waste of time, and wished to bury it as soon as possible."

Israel's rising right wing  10/9/2007 Salon: "But over the past several years Arcadi Gaydamak, an enigmatic Russian-Israeli billionaire, has managed to become a widely influential figure in Israel. And he is now at the center of a right-wing political alliance -- featuring Israeli über-hawk Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu -- that could dramatically influence the country's direction. If the rising alliance takes power in the next election, it could push Israel toward military confrontations with Iran, Syria or Hezbollah, while extinguishing any remaining flickers of hope in Israel's peace camp regarding the Palestinians. Gaydamak has recently been consolidating his influence as a power broker in Israeli politics. He has used his wealth to gain popularity through social and business initiatives, while deftly exploiting the widespread perception of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government as corrupt and incompetent, particularly during last year's disastrous war in Lebanon. With his financial capital and cunning political tactics, Gaydamak is like a cross between George Soros and Karl Rove, with a streak of Russian oligarchy at his core. In a country full of colorful political characters, he may be the most colorful. Gaydamak is wanted in France for illegal arms dealing. He is alleged to have ties, through his former arms-dealing partner, to Halliburton and to corporations that donated to President George W. Bush's 2000 campaign. He has Russian, Israeli, French and Canadian citizenship, as well as a diplomatic passport from Angola, on which he reportedly travels in order to avoid arrest. He owns a Jerusalem soccer team with a notoriously racist, anti-Arab fan base. And he is said to be planning a run for mayor of Jerusalem."

So Who's Afraid of the Israel Lobby?  10/5/2007 Consortium News: "Virtually everyone: Republican, Democrat—Conservative, Liberal. The fear factor is non-partisan, you might say, and palpable."

Milton Viorst on ‘The Israel Lobby’  10/4/2007 Truth Dig 

New revelations in attack on American spy ship - Veterans, documents suggest U.S., Israel didn't tell full story of deadly '67 incident  10/2/2007 Chicago Tribune: Abundant proof the Israelis deliberately attacked US Navy ship.

Myanmar and Israel develop military  10/1/2007 Jane's Intelligence Review: published 3/2000 by this prestigious publication - "Although allegations of a secret military partnership between Myanmar and Israel continue to be denied by both sides, reports suggest that Israel is aiding Myanmar's military modernisation.William Ashton examines the commercial and strategic links between the two countries."

Israel’s Toy Soldiers  10/1/2007 TruthDig: "If you are a young Muslim American and head off to the Middle East for a spell in a fundamentalist “madrassa,” or religious school, Homeland Security will probably greet you at the airport when you return. But if you are an American Jew and you join hundreds of teenagers from Europe and Mexico for an eight-week training course run by the Israel Defense Forces, you can post your picture wearing an Israeli army uniform and holding an automatic weapon on MySpace."

Israel mulls downgrading ties with Venezuela due to Iran alliance  9/30/2007 Haaretz: "Israel is considering downgrading its relations with Venezuela in light of the extremist anti-Israel line taken by the country's government under President Hugo Chavez. Israel is concerned about the growing alliance between Chavez and his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A highly-placed source in Jerusalem says only preliminary talks have been held on the issue and no decision has been made. Israel's ambassador to Venezuela, Shlomo Cohen, is due to leave his post next June. The Foreign Ministry has no plans to name a replacement at this point, preferring to send an acting ambassador instead. The possibility of naming a temporary head of mission in Caracas was raised at a recent Foreign Ministry meeting. Such a move would amount to a downgrading of Jerusalem's relations with Caracas."

Secret US air force team to perfect plan for Iran strike  9/23/2007 Times, London: "Checkmate’s job is to add a dash of brilliance to Air Force thinking by countering the military’s tendency to “fight the last war” and by providing innovative strategies for warfighting and assessing future needs for air, space and cyberwarfare. It is led by Brigadier-General Lawrence “Stutz” Stutzriem, who is considered one of the brightest air force generals. He is assisted by Dr Lani Kass, a former Israeli military officer and expert on cyberwarfare."

Moran Upsets Jewish Groups Again - U.S. House Democrat Said Pro-Israel Lobby Promoted War  9/16/2007 WaPo: "Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) has again come under fire from local Jewish organizations for remarking in a magazine interview that the "extraordinarily powerful" pro-Israel lobby played a strong role promoting the war in Iraq. In an interview with Tikkun, a California-based Jewish magazine, Moran said the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is "the most powerful lobby and has pushed this war from the beginning. I don't think they represent the mainstream of American Jewish thinking at all, but because they are so well organized, and their members are extraordinarily powerful -- most of them are quite wealthy -- they have been able to exert power." Moran's remarks were criticized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington and the National Jewish Democratic Council. Ronald Halber, executive director of the first group, said Moran's remarks are anti-Semitic and draw on ugly stereotypes about Jewish wealth, power and influence."

Despite Backlash, Many Jews Are Questioning Israel  9/14/2007 AntiWar 

Israel and Censorship at Harvard  9/14/2007 Harvard Crimson: [by J. Lorand Matory ’82, professor of anthropology and of African and African-American studies.] "In my country, people tremble in the fear of losing their friends, jobs, advertising revenues, campaign contributions, and alumni donations if they question Zionism or Israeli policy—despite the billions of our tax dollars paid annually for Israel’s defense and sustenance. Even the Israeli military hosts freer debates about this issue than any U.S. university does. One result: Israel has now withdrawn from Gaza, an action that Summers slammed Harvard and MIT professors as anti-Semitic for even contemplating."

A Zionist Boy Reads the Prophets—How I came to critique the Israel Lobby  9/10/2007 Tikkun: long article by the editor of Tikkun

L’US Army et Tsahal forment l’armée colombienne à la torture  9/8/2007 VoltaireNet: "Les forces armées colombiennes sont assistées de conseillers militaires israéliens et états-uniens pour réprimer la rébellion marxiste-léniniste des FARC a indiqué Juan Manuel Santos, ministre de la Défense, au quotidien Semana [1]. Il s’agit principalement de la sous-traitance et de la formation aux « techniques spéciales d’interrogatoires », c’est-à-dire à la torture. Ce contrat a été négocié par l’ancien ministre travailliste israélien Shlomo Ben Ami, actuel vice-président du Centre international de Tolède pour la paix (CIT Pax), un think tank qui prétend aider à la résolution des conflits en Colombie. Dans les années 60, le Pentagone avait créé deux écoles de torture, l’une à Taiwan (Political Warfare Cadres Academy), l’autre à Panama (School of Americas), rendue célébre par le film de Constantin Costa-Gavras, État de siège. Fermées par le président Clinton, ces institutions ont été reconstituées par l’US Army à Bagram (Afghanistan) et Guantanamo (Cuba). Outre des cours sur place, elles proposent maintenant des assistances à l’étranger en partenariat avec des officiers israéliens ayant développé leur savoir-faire en Palestine occupée."

Outing the 'Israel Lobby'  9/7/2007 AntiWar: "They also argue that the lobby acts on its own, and sometimes even against the express interests and policy of the Israeli government. That may be due, in large part, to the fact that the institutional leadership of the lobby is comprised of individuals and organizations whose views are more closely associated with those of the right-wing Likud party in Israel."

Foreign Agents: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee from the 1963 Fulbright Hearings to the 2005 Espionage Scandal By Grant F. Smith  9/1/2007 American Council on Middle East Policy: "Grant F. Smith's new book, Foreign Agents, decisively pushes this debate forward and shows just how brazen and criminal the lobby has acted since its beginnings. Smith traces the development of AIPAC from its early days under founder Si Kenen, who in 1947 registered with the US Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as an employee of the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs. He was representing himself then as an agent working for Israel. He continued to register as a foreign agent during the late forties and fifties, working for various organizations funded by the Israel government, but in 1959, the name of the American Zionist Committee was changed to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to better reflect, as Kenen said, that it "raised its funds from both Zionists and non-Zionists." Its focus of work never changed, which was to promote the cause of Israel in both the executive and legislation branches of government, yet the organization no longer filed as a foreign agent. AIPAC eventually developed an extensive grassroots national network of organizations that engaged in all manner of illegal activities, from transgressing federal elections laws, to economic and industrial espionage, to flouting congressional laws regarding the use of arms exported to foreign countries, and passing classified and secret information to the Israeli government via the Israeli embassy in Washington. In 2005, after a nine-year investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, two of AIPAC's top officials were arrested for espionage, and the role that AIPAC played over the years as a covert agent for Israel was given unusual light. The book uses as a primary source the historic and remarkable hearings that Senator William Fulbright held in 1963 to investigate the "activities of agents of foreign principals in the United States." The Committee's aim was to look at the work of all organizations working on behalf of foreign countries, but in the process it discovered that the American Zionist Committee (AZC) was funded by the Jewish Agency, an arm of the Israeli government, and by the Israeli embassy, although its principals were not registered as foreign agents. The hearings disclosed the secret world of the AZC and the Jewish Agency, finding a pattern of money laundering that became a hallmark of AIPAC in the years to come. Both the Agency and the embassy typically hid the support that they provided by using private foundations and individuals as fronts so that it would appear the AZC was funded by American, not foreign, sources. Thus they bypassed the terms of the Foreign Agent Registration Act and sought to obscure their aim, which was to represent the interests of the Israeli government."

Serious. Cold. Stunning. Walt and Mearsheimer Arrive in Hard Covers  8/30/2007 MondoWeiss: "The revision of Israeli history is stirring. The ways that the lobby has diminished the suffering of the Palestinians and enabled the occupation and settlements are starkly and even emotionally described. Most stunning is the argument that Remnick accepts: the authors' description of the Iraq disaster as arising from the lobby's pressure. I study this issue, and yet I turned the pages of this chapter with my mouth open, especially the pages dealing with the manipulation of intelligence, and evidence of Israel's hand in the WMD lies. It is this section that should and must stir national debate, and now."

Tony Judt on Harry Lyme and Other Intellectuals  8/30/2007 MondoWeiss: published 12/07 - "Tony Judt is a great scholar and a man of conscience. Most people don't know that he is a former Zionist who dropped out of Cambridge to aid Israel in the Six Day War."

The Lobby  8/30/2007 New Yorker: critique of Mearsheimer and Walt. -- "The duplicitous and manipulative arguments for invading Iraq put forward by the Bush Administration, the general inability of the press to upend those duplicities, the triumphalist illusions, the miserable performance of the military strategists, the arrogance of the Pentagon, the stifling of dissent within the military and the government, the moral disaster of Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo, the rise of an intractable civil war, and now an incapacity to deal with the singular winner of the war, Iran—all of this has left Americans furious and demanding explanations. Mearsheimer and Walt provide one: the Israel lobby. In this respect, their account is not so much a diagnosis of our polarized era as a symptom of it."

Yes, It’s Anti-Semitic  8/30/2007 WaPo: published 4/06, critique of Mearsheimer and Walt.

Were the Spies "Journalists"? The ADL Snoops  8/27/2007 Counterpunch: published around 1999 - "The organization's main "fact-finder" was doubling as a spy for the white South African government while his buddy, a San Francisco cop who had tutored El Salvadoran death squads on the finer aspects of torture, was providing its officials with personal information on the organization's putative enemies when the story broke in San Francisco in December, 1992. The organization was the Anti-Defamation League. The ADL claims to be the nation's leading defender against prejudice and bigotry but in this instance its targets were members of the African National Congress and its supporters, and apparently everyone, Arab and non-Arab, who had the temerity to criticize Israel. This included some who drove to Arab community events where the ADL's "fact-finder," Roy Bullock, and the cop, Tom Gerard, took turns writing down their license plate numbers, which Gerard turned into addresses thanks to his access to California motor vehicle records."

WHO WATCHES THE"WATCHDOGS"?  8/27/2007 Foods not Bombs: published 4/01 - "For decades the ADL routinely compiled dossiers on left wing organizations, trade unions, journalists, anti-apartheid and pro-Palestinian activists and admits to supplying reports to law enforcement entities including the FBI. Between 1985-1993, Roy Bullock, a San Francisco "art dealer" and Tom Gerard, an S.F. cop and CIA "contract employee" tasked to El Salvador, ran a "private" spy operation reminiscent of the FBI's murderous COINTELPRO program. Some of the information gathered by these clowns was sold to the South African apartheid state as well as to Israel and El Salvador's death squad regime. According to sworn testimony, much of their operation was coordinated from ADL's national headquarters in New York."

Spy vs Spite  8/27/2007 SF Chronicle: scroll down for this story published 2/02 - "The Clinton administration has praised the Anti-Defamation League for helping shield kids from Internet hate. But should a group that spied on thousands of Californians be allowed to police the Web?"

The Ugly Truth about the ADL  8/27/2007 TEI: "The EIR points out the inter-reliant nature of the ADL and organized crime. A strong link between philanthropy and gambling, labor racketeering, money laundering and narcotics has been established while the ADL was coming into prominence, and resulted in them obtaining the expansive power they wield today. This particular period of ADL activity was marked by the involvement of the infamous Jewish gangster Meyer Lansky and partner Mo Dalitz. "When Lansky moved into Cuba to open his first offshore gambling, narcotics and money laundering haven, Dalitz was brought in as a privileged partner. When Lansky and the other directors of the National Crime Syndicate decided that his long time partner Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel had be come a liability and had to be assassinated, it was Dalitz who assumed the lion’s share of Siegel’s Las Vegas casino interests…" Mr. Dalitz has been a recipient of the coveted "Torch of Liberty Award" awarded by the ADL in an attempt to sanitize their image by sanctimoniously claiming to be a human rights organization when in fact they are on the forefront of censorship in defiance of human rights.The EIR provides information on ADL involvement in the drug war, Iran-Contra, Michael Milliken’s junk bond scandal. Additional information is provided on the ADL compliance with the intimidation tactics of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) and the Jewish Defense Organization (JDO) including assassinations and bombings. The FBI knew about these activities, however continued to rely on ADL supplied information regarding other "extremist groups." "

Major Jewish group recognizes Armenian genocide  8/23/2007 LA Times 

Jews in US let the cat out of the bag  8/23/2007 New Anatolian, Turkey: "It is meaningless to try to push the Anti-Defamation League to reverse its position again. What we need is do crisis management and prevent American Jewish groups to follow the ADL line and accept the events of 1915 as an act of genocide against the Armenians. We have to work on Jewish lobby in the U.S. and on Israel."

Abe Foxman's Genocide Denial Road Show  8/22/2007 Counterpunch: "But there are over 8000 Armenian-Americans in Watertown, and the ADL has long denied that the Turkish massacre of 1.5 million Armenians from 1915 to 1923 amounted to genocide. Turkey is of course an ally and arms purchaser of Israel's, but the denial antedates this alliance. A good friend of mine, an Israeli expatriate, tells me that when he went to school in Israel, mention of the Armenian genocide was verboten so as not to detract from the "uniqueness" of the Jewish genocide under the Nazis and to maintain a "monopoly on suffering," as he puts it. Shoah business does not like the competition."

Jewish groups pressure the ADL - Urge recognition of genocide  8/21/2007 Boston Globe: "Nancy K. Kaufman, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, e-mailed a letter yesterday to some 40 prominent Jewish leaders in Massachusetts, asking them to support the ousted director and to recognize the genocide against Armenians. "We must never forget the Armenian genocide and maintain our guard against those who deny its occurrence," the letter said. Within hours of sending the letter, Kaufman said that 11 groups had signed and that more were expected to do so shortly. "I have never gotten such unanimous support for any position by the JCRC as I have in the last few days on this one," Kaufman said. "It doesn't matter where people are on the political spectrum -- left, right, middle -- people are really standing behind this because it strikes at the core of what it means to be a Jew and never again means never again.""

Armenian genocide brings firing  8/19/2007 Press TV, Iran 

ADL local leader fired on Armenian issue  8/18/2007 Boston Globe: "The national Anti-Defamation League fired its New England regional director yesterday, one day after he broke ranks with national ADL leadership and said the human rights organization should acknowledge the Armenian genocide that began in 1915. The firing of Andrew H. Tarsy, who had served as regional director for about two years and as civil rights counsel for about five years before that, prompted an immediate backlash among prominent local Jewish leaders against the ADL's national leadership and its national director, Abraham H. Foxman."

U.S., Israel sign record-high military aid deal  8/16/2007 USA Today: "The United States signed an unprecedented $30 billion military aid package with Israel on Thursday, bolstering its closest Mideast ally and moving to secure Israel's military edge over its neighbors long into the future. Nicholas Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, said in a signing ceremony in Jerusalem that the package was meant to back peace-seeking countries like Israel and moderate Arab states in the region and counter U.S. adversaries such as Iran."

If Politicians Won't Lead, Citizens Must - Boycott Movement Targets Israel  8/15/2007 SF Chronicle 

'This One Is So Hot': The Censorship of Walt and Mearsheimer  8/14/2007 American Council on Middle East Policy: "Walt and Mearsheimer point out that Michael Oren spoke at the Council earlier this year on Middle East matters without "context." Oren is a neoconservative who made aliyah to Israel in the 70s and who served as an officer in the Israeli army. John Mearsheimer served as an officer in the United States Air Force. Let us be very clear about this: A former officer in the Israeli Army who lives in Israel (and has lately served in the Israeli Reserves) may hold forth about our policy in the Middle East, but a former officer in our Air Force has no place to do the same. You don't have to be a nativist to find this mindboggling. Mearsheimer and Walt are all for Oren speaking, they just want to be able to speak too. And just compare the literary and analytical work of Oren and Mearsheimer; there is no comparison. Oren is a polemicist, Mearsheimer a serious student of American policy. Deeply dispiriting. Where is Alan Dershowitz, to decry the censorship?"

Report: Israelis fighting guerillas in Colombia  8/10/2007 Ynet News, Israel: "Colombia's defense minister confirmed recently that ex Israeli military men were helping his government fight guerilla organizations, Colombia weekly Semana recently reported. Meanwhile, Colombian guerilla group FARC stated that Israeli commandos, along with American and British forces, were operating in the jungles against drug lords and guerilla fighters While denying this report, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos did admit that a group of Israeli advisors was working alongside local defense officials in the last year. According to Semana, "A group of former Israeli military officials is counseling the military's top brass on intelligence issues." The paper added that the Israelis were hired by the Colombian Defense Ministry in order to improve the army's intelligence gathering capabilities and the command and control structure within the military. Defense Minister Santos, said the Semana, was put in touch with the Israelis last year by former Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben Ami. Ben Ami's spokesman stated that Santos has been referred to the relevant authorities in Israel. The contract between the Israeli advisors and the Colombian Defense Ministry was signed in April this year, and sources in the country said that it stood at $10 million… In recent years, Israel has become Colombia's number one weapon supplier, with the arms mainly used to battle drug lords. These weapons include drones, light arms and ammunition, observation and communication systems and even special bombs capable of destroying coca fields. "Israel's methods of fighting terror have been duplicated in Colombia," a senior defense official said Thursday, adding that arms export to Colombia has increased significantly in recent years, totaling tens of millions of dollars."

The Secret War Against the Jews  8/6/2007 Second Opinion 

Syracuse University Enlists in the Global War on Terror  8/3/2007 Counterpunch: "In 2003 Syracuse University created an interdisciplinary program of the College of Law, which the Maxwell School joined in 2004, called the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism (INSCT) [1]. According to the Maxwell Perspective article mentioned above, “The Old Rules No Longer Apply” by freelance writer Renee Gearhart Levy [2], the program’s purpose is to “tackle” questions of law and policy having to do with security and counterterrorism. In 2005 INSCT formed a partnership with the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) [3] of Herzliya, Israel – a program of higher education and think tank concerned with global terrorism and homeland security. The partnership purportedly will help both institutions promote the vision of a generational US-led war against Islamic terrorism (referred to as the “Long War” by Washington insiders) which has been the core of the Bush administration’s foreign policy. Officials from both INSCT and ICT have expressed great enthusiasm about their joint venture. Maxwell Dean Mitchel B. Wallerstein, former deputy assistant secretary of defense, calls it an “exciting collaborative relationship.” [4] It is not, in our opinion, at all clear that this effort is compatible with the greater educational and humanistic mission of a leading American university. The ICT, part of the broader Interdisciplinary Institute (IDC), is one of the most influential Israeli security institutes, one which has extremely close connections to the Israeli government and military. The chairman of the board of directors of ICT is Shabtai Shavit, who is a former head of the Mossad (the Israel intelligence agency). The American zillionaire Ronald Lauder is one of the main benefactors of the IDC, in fact the ICT is part of the Lauder School of Government. Lauder is a powerful member of the pro-Israel lobby. The ICT also contains a commercial security consulting business called Counter Terrorism Solutions Ltd. (CST). [5] Naomi Klein recently wrote in The Nation, [on July 2, 2007] that Israel has turned the Long War into a “brand asset, pitching its uprooting and occupation of the Palestinian people as a half century head start in the ‘global war on terror.’” The institute also operates an office in Washington which lobbies Congress and other US government officials on behalf of Israel. [6]"

Les services de renseignement allemands s’inquiètent de l’évolution de leurs homologues français  7/30/2007 VoltaireNet: "Dans son édition datée du 14 juillet 2007, l’influente lettre confidentielle bavaroise DeutschlandBrief assure que les émeutes qui ont secoué les banlieues des grandes villes françaises en novembre 2005 ont été provoquées en sous-main par les services secrets israéliens… À cette époque, le Réseau Voltaire avait eu confirmation, de source syndicale policière, que les principaux incidents avaient été délibérément provoqués, et que des agitateurs avaient distribué des bidons d’essence et des cocktails molotov. C’est d’ailleurs sur la base de ces mêmes informations que le président Chirac avait pris la décision de l’état d’urgence. DeutschlandBrief est édité par le Dr. Bruno Bandulet (ancien directeur de la rédaction du Welt et de Quick) et est très lu dans les milieux financiers et politiques allemands. Il est réputé proche du Service fédéral de renseignement (BundesNachrichtenDienst — BND). Selon le journal, Israël entendait sanctionner la « politique arabe » du président Chirac, mais aurait été dépassé par la réussite de son opération. En désignant la main du Mossad dans la provocation et l’amplification de ces émeutes, DeutschlandBrief engage sa crédibilité auprès de son lectorat et traduit l’inquiétude des milieux allemands du renseignement face aux nominations auxquelles le président Nicolas Sarkozy vient de procéder dans les services français."

Israeli PM announces 30 billion US dollar US defence aid  7/29/2007 Forbes 

A Forgotten Black-Jewish Alliance  7/24/2007 Arutz Sheva: first published 1/05 - "The Bergson group was initially known as the Committee for a Jewish Army. From 1940 to 1943, it sought the creation of a Jewish armed force that would fight alongside the Allies against the Nazis. Black labor union leader A. Philip Randolph, president of the International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, was an early backer of Bergson's Jewish army effort. So was W. E. B. DuBois, the leading African-American intellectual of his era. Eventually, the British agreed to establish the 5,000-man force, known as the Jewish Brigade. It fought with distinction on the European battlefield in 1945, and many of its veterans later took part in Israel's 1948 War of Independence… Two of the most famous African-American authors of that period, Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, were sponsors of the Bergson group's July 1943 Emergency Conference to Save the Jewish People of Europe. The conference, which was held in New York City, sought to counter the Roosevelt administration's claim that rescuing Jews from Hitler was physically impossible. More than 1,500 delegates listened to panels of experts on transportation, relief methods, military affairs and other fields, discussing specific, practical ways to save Jews from the Holocaust. One of the speakers was Walter White, executive director of the NAACP. In addition, the famous Black singer, actor and political activist Paul Robeson was one of the stars of a Madison Square Garden "Show of Shows" organized by Bergson in 1944 to raise money for his campaign to rescue Jewish refugees… During that same period, Walter White and the NAACP worked closely with the Bergson group to help bring about the desegregation of theaters in Baltimore, which restricted African-Americans to less desirable seats. In 1946, Bergson ally Ben Hecht, one of the most prominent screenwriters in Hollywood, authored a Broadway play called "A Flag is Born", to rally American public sympathy for the Jewish rebels battling the British for control of Palestine. On the eve of the staging of "Flag" at the Maryland Theater in Baltimore, the Bergson group and the NAACP joined hands to pressure the theater management to abandon its discriminatory seating policy -- "a tradition-shattering victory," as White called it."

Theocrats Deny 'End Times' Theology Is Cause of Their Push for War With Iran  7/23/2007 Alternet: "Just as it had been during Hagee's appearance at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) last spring, every effort was made to whitewash his apocalyptic religious beliefs (which include enforced Christianity for his Jewish allies at the end) and present him as a good friend of Israel and Jews. But Hagee's most recent book, Jerusalem Countdown, reissued with new material earlier this year, is all about the end of days and how nuclear war with Iran will ignite it. Hagee frequently talks about how Jesus Christ will rule the world from a throne on the Temple Mount after the battle at Armageddon. Hagee admits he has "written extensively about why I believe that the generation that is alive today will see the mass ingathering of believers commonly called the Rapture." ...After the press conference ended, reporters were talking outside the room. A representative of CUFI's public relations firm engaged a group of us in conversation. She insisted that Hagee wears two hats -- one as a pastor and one as a political activist -- and that the CUFI summit was about politics, not eschatology. We discussed whether it was possible for Hagee to separate his end times views from his political stance on Israel, based solely on the Bible, which Hagee describes as the "word of the living God ... the whole truth and nothing but the truth." Hagee's security personnel, along with hotel security guards, then escorted me, Max Blumenthal, and his accompanying camera man out of the building and off the premises. We were not, apparently, the right kind of Jews. (At the AIPAC conference, I had a similar discussion with one of its representatives, which attracted no attention. If Hagee is unfamiliar with the great Jewish tradition of debate, he can come to Shabbat dinner at my house.)"

The Threat of American Public Opinion - Israel's Dirty Little Secret  7/20/2007 Counterpunch 

Report: Libby a long-time Israeli intelligence agent  7/7/2007 Global Research: "Irving Lewis "Scooter" Libby (Leibowitz) has been a long-serving intelligence agent for Israel's Mossad, according to a veteran CIA "official cover" officer who spoke to the Wayne Madsen Report on deep background. The CIA's Clandestine Service has, over the years, gathered a tremendous amount of intelligence on Libby's activities on behalf of Mossad. Libby served as the lawyer for Switzerland- based American fugitive financier Marc Rich, aka Mark David Reich, who is also known to be an Israeli intelligence asset and someone Israel relies upon for missions that demand "plausible deniability" on the part of the Mossad. Rich heads up a worldwide empire of dummy corporations, foundations, and numbered bank accounts that have been involved in sanctions busting and weapons smuggling. The nations involved include Israel, United States, United Kingdom, Iran, Panama, Colombia, Russia, Iraq (under Saddam Hussein), Cuba, Spain, Nigeria, Singapore, Bolivia, Jamaica, Bermuda, France, Italy, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Australia, Argentina, Peru, Ireland, Zambia, Sw In 1983, the then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York urged jail time for Rich and his partner Pincus Green for racketeering. The name of that U.S. Attorney is Rudolph Giuliani. Giuliani, who is now running for president, praised Bush's decision to commute Libby's jail sentence. After Clinton 's pardon of Rich, Giuliani said he was "shocked." Paul Klebnikov, the Moscow editor for Forbes' Russian edition, wrote about the connections of Rich to Russian gangsters like Boris Berezovsky, a business partner of Neil Bush, in his book "Godfather of the Kremlin." Klebnikov was shot to death gangland-style on a Moscow street on July 9, 2004. Libby not only provided the Mossad with a top agent inside the White House but also an important conduit for the Russian-Israeli Mafia. Libby arranged for Rich's eleventh hour pardon by outgoing President Bill Clinton in January 2001. The pardon of Rich was urged in a phone call to Clinton by then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, as well as Shimon Peres and Ehud Olmert."

Namibia again postpones US software fugitive case  6/25/2007 Reuters: From Wayne Madsen - "The Israeli-born Alexander's company Comverse was cited in Justice Department memos as being possibly being involved in wiretapping of Justice Department, including FBI, surveillance systems."

Keeping Talk Radio Pro-Israel  6/22/2007 Jewish Week 

Rockets, Napalm, Torpedoes & Lie - Israel's Attack on the USS Liberty, Revisited  6/8/2007 Counterpunch: "The Liberty was positioned just off the coast from the town of El Arish. In fact, Ennes and others had used the town's mosque tower to fix the location of the ship along the otherwise featureless desert shoreline. The IDF had seized El Arish and had used the airport there as a prisoner of war camp. On the very day the Liberty was attacked, the IDF was in the process of executing as many as 1,000 Palestinian and Egyptian POWs, a war crime that they surely wanted to conceal from prying eyes. According to Gabriel Bron, now an Israeli reporter, who witnessed part of the massacre as a soldier: "The Egyptian prisoners of war were ordered to dig pits and then army police shot them to death.""

Racism, anti-Semitism taunts fly as black U.S. leader denied entry  5/17/2007 Winnipeg Free Press: "A black American leader scheduled to attend a rally at the Ontario legislature and deliver a lecture in Toronto was apparently denied entry to Canada on Tuesday amid acrimonious accusations of racism, anti-Semitism and questions about free speech."

Victor Ostrovsky: How Mossad Got America to Bomb Libya & Fight Iraq  5/6/2007 Myers 

The Kissinger Connection  5/4/2007 Taki's Top Drawer: "It is more likely that the Democrats and the brain-dead Republicans voted to invade and take over Iraq not because they regarded Saddam as a threat to the United States, but rather because, first and foremost, (a) they felt Washington could get away with it and (b) because the political payoff for war in the Congressional midterm elections of 2002 was deemed significant. If you voted against the Administration, you could be smeared as soft on terrorism and national security. More important, you would be bucking the outsized political clout of the Israel Lobby, which was pushing for war on Iraq to the max, and had been for years. Moreover, after a decade of devastating economic sanctions, Iraq was going to be a cake walk, in any event. So it was a low risk proposition. To the professional politicians making their career calculations, the downside of launching the war appeared small and very manageable. The upside was impressive… Feith was a protégé of “neocon” geopolitical grandee, Richard Perle. Feith is on the Advisory Board of the (U.S.) Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. Feith is a face card in the deck of the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies, headquartered in Jerusalem. The law office he founded in 1986, Feith & Zell, is based in Israel, catering to Jewish-American “settlers” on the West Bank. Colonel Larry Wilkerson, who was aide-de-camp to Secretary of State Colin Powell, has stated he looked upon Feith as a card-carrying member of the Likud party. How did these important items in Feith’s background qualify him to oversee the U.S. military? In his capacity as the “undersecretary for policy” at the Pentagon, Doug Feith was the number three civilian in charge of the entire U.S. Defense establishment, behind Professor Paul Wolfowitz and Don Rumsfeld. Was that appropriate? Whose idea was it to put him there, creating such an obvious and enormous conflict of interest? Inquiring minds would like to know."

Graymail and Freedom of the Press: Is Mainstream Corporate Media subverting the AIPAC Spy Trial?  4/21/2007 IRMPE 

Debating the Primacy of The Pro-Israel Lobby - THE DEBATE BETWEEN JAMES PETRAS AND NORMAN FINKELSTEIN  4/18/2007 Znet: "One, because of the disaster in Iraq, the public is open to discussion, particularly with the prominence of Zionists in bringing about the war – so I think you have public opinion open because of the discontent with the war and their concern about who got us into the war and into this mess. Second reason is that there is an inter-elite fight in the United States, between sectors of the military, sectors of the Congress, conservatives versus the pro-Israel crowd, the pro-war crowd. And the third reason is the arrogance and bullying by the Zionists, in particular, their organizations that go around trying to prevent this discussion has backfired and I think people are fed up with the Zionist banning (the play about Rachel) Corrie in New York and elsewhere – so I think these are the reasons."

Why is the Peace Movement Silent About AIPAC?  4/17/2007 Counterpunch 

Soros adds voice to debate over Israel lobby  4/15/2007 Reuters: ""The pro-Israel lobby has been remarkably successful in suppressing criticism," wrote Soros. Politicians challenge it at their peril and dissenters risk personal vilification, he said. AIPAC has consistently declined comment on such charges, but many of its supporters have been vocal in dismissing them. Historian Michael Oren, speaking at AIPAC's 2007 conference in March, said the group was not merely a lobby for Israel. "It is the embodiment of a conviction as old as this (American) nation itself that belief in the Jewish state is tantamount to belief in these United States," he said in a keynote speech."

DANCING OR DENOUNCING IN THE WORLD-WIDE EARTHQUAKE: JEWS & MUSLIMS  4/12/2007 The Shalom Center 

Etymology and the Israel Lobby - When an Anti-Semite is Not an Anti-Semite  4/7/2007 Counterpunch 

Fire destroys synagogue of group that attended Iran's Holocaust conference  4/2/2007 Columbus Dispatch: "Rabbi Yisroel Dovid of Neturei Karta said the group suspects arson because of previous threats. "There's no question that the issue is to stifle the opposition to Zionism," he said by telephone early this morning. Rabbi Moshe Beck, a senior rabbi for the group, lived on the top floor of the building, Dovid said. Beck is one of the group's more outspoken leaders. "He's the backbone of much of the activity, so that's why he's supposedly been singled out," Dovid said."

Bronfmans' history  4/1/2007  

The "Bronfman Gang" chapter from "DOPE INC" by Lyndon Larouche  4/1/2007  

The Rest of the Story - The Bronfman Crime Families  4/1/2007 Hidden Mysteries: "The Bronfman (Edgar left) family started out in the hotel business in Canada but during Prohibition they reportedly made tremendous profits by shipping liquor into the United States, reportedly shipping booze through Cleveland, Detroit and New York. Dalitz's connection to the Bronfman family stemmed from the fact that the Bronfmans shipped most of their liquor through Cleveland because of the city's proximity to the Canadian border. However, the Bronfmans also dealt with the Purple Gang in Detroit, and with various New York bootleggers including Luciano (right), Lansky and Arnold Rothstein. The Bronfmans were always entertained lavishly and treated to the best seats at boxing matches by their underworld hosts. After Prohibition, the Bronfmans' distilleries were among the most profitable in the liquor industry... In 1976 a crusading Phoenix reporter, Don Bolles, was murdered by a car-bomb after writing a series of stories exposing the organized crime connections of well-known figures in Arizona, including one Jim Hensley. Five years later "Honest John" McCain arrived in Arizona as the new husband of Hensley's daughter, Cindy. "From the moment McCain landed in Phoenix," according to Charles Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity, "the Hensleys were key sponsors of his political career." ...While it is well-known McCain's father-in-law is owner of the biggest Anheuser-Busch beer distributor in Arizona—one of the largest beer distributors in the nation—the media has had nothing to say about the origins of the Hensley fortune that financed McCain's rise to power.The Hensley fortune, in fact, is a regional offshoot of the big time bootlegging and rackets empire of the Bronfman dynasty of Canada, founded by Sam Bronfman, an early partner of Meyer Lansky, longtime "chairman of the board" of the international crime syndicate. (The Bronfmans cover all bases. Sam's son, Edgar, today—at least publicly—supports George W. Bush.) McCain's father-in-law got his start as a top henchman of one Kemper Marley who, for some forty years until his death in 1990 at age 84, was the undisputed behind-the-scenes political boss of Arizona. But Marley was much more: he was also the protege of Lansky's longtime lieutenant, Phoenix gambler Gus Greenbaum."

Mossad and JFK assassination By Peter Edel  4/1/2007 William Bowles 

Israel's Last Chance by Gabriel Kolko  3/17/2007 AntiWar: "Never before has Israel been wracked by so many demoralizing scandals. The president of Israel just resigned because of rape charges against him, Prime Minister Olmert is being investigated by the comptroller’s office on four charges of corruption, the new chief of police was once accused of accepting bribes and fraud and his appointment has created an uproar, and other sordid cases too numerous to cite. Israel is "stewing in its own rot," a Haaretz writer concluded; the police, retired judge Vardi Zeiler commented after heading a committee to investigate the state’s operation, were like Sicily and the state was on its way to becoming a mafia-style regime."

Naked, bound and drunk Israeli diplomat loses job  3/13/2007 Toronto Star: "Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador after he was found naked, bound and drunk, according to Israeli media reports confirmed yesterday by a government spokesperson. Long-time diplomat Tsuriel Raphael has been removed from his post and the foreign ministry is searching for a replacement, said ministry spokesperson Zehavit Ben-Hillel. Two weeks ago, El Salvador police found Raphael in the yard of his residence, tied up, gagged with a ball and drunk, Israeli media reported. He was wearing sex bondage equipment, media said."

Bloggers vs. the Lobby - Israel’s propaganda fortress faces a surprising new challenge  3/12/2007 The American Conservative: "For within a day or two, one could read in the blogs some surprising assertions that amounted to a truth defense of Wes Clark. It seemed to come primarily from young, or comparatively young, Jewish bloggers. Observations that had been bandied about for years in private seemed to burst forth where many people could see them. This was welcome and suggests a broadening and deepening of the peace movement that so notably failed to stop the Iraq War. Suddenly there were Jewish voices talking about the Israel lobby as an established fact and, to be frank, as a bit of a problem. Significantly, these were not voices from an older and more alienated Chomskyian Left but from an American Prospect-like liberal mainstream."

High-Fivers and Art Student Spies - What Did Israel Know in Advance of the 9/11 Attacks?  3/7/2007 Counterpunch 

Obama to offer pro-Israel views at Chicago gathering  3/1/2007 Chicago Sun Times 

ISRAEL AND IRAN – AND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION  2/10/2007 Defense and the National Interest: "The only security Israel can have will be a result of its signing peace accords with the Palestinians and the neighboring countries. It is no more likely than the U. S. to defeat its enemies on the field of battle and its arms have been neutralized. The war in Lebanon was only an augury of the decisive limits of its military power. It is this context that secret Israeli talks with Syria have enormous significance. They began in January 2004 in Turkey with the approval of Sharon, moving on to Switzerland, where the Swiss Foreign Office played the role of intermediary. By August 2005 they had reached a very advanced form and covered territorial, water, border and political questions. Details remained to be ironed out but they were a quantum leap in solving one of the region's crucial problems. When the Baker-Hamilton Study Group filed its recommendations last December, negotiations with Syria were especially stressed – a point he reiterated when he testified to the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations last January 30th. Baker undoubtedly knew about the secret talks and Syria's explicit statements it wished to break with radical Islamic movements and was ready to discuss its ties with Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. These nominally secret talks were made public on January 8, 2007 when Egypt president Hosni Mubarak accused the United States in an interview with an Israeli paper of obstructing peace between Israel and Syria. Ha'aretz' Akiva Eldar then published a series of extremely detailed accounts, including the draft accord, confirming that Syria 'offered a far reaching and equitable peace treaty that would provide for Israel's security and is comprehensive – and divorce Syria from Iran and even create a crucial distance between it and Hezbollah and Hamas. The Bush Administration's role in scuttling any peace accord was decisive. C. David Welch, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, sat in at the final meeting, and two former senior CIA officials were present in all of these meetings and sent regular reports to Vice President Dick Cheney's office. The press has been full of details on how the American role was decisive because it has war, not peace, at the top of its agenda."

14 Carter Center Board Members Resign  1/13/2007 AP: "Fourteen members of an advisory board to Jimmy Carter's human rights organization resigned on Thursday to protest his new book, which has been attacked as unfairly critical of Israel and riddled with inaccuracies."

Israelis denounce reports of plan to strike Iran  1/8/2007 Telegraph 

Democrats: Nuclear Iran unacceptable  1/7/2007 Jerusalem Post: "Iran with nuclear weapons is unacceptable, new House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told The Jerusalem Post hours after entering the party leadership position. The Maryland Democrat said the view is shared by his party, rejecting assertions that the Democrats would be weaker than the Republicans on Iran. He also said that the use of force against Teheran remained an option. Hoyer, second only in the hierarchy of the House of Representatives to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is charged with articulating and strategizing on party policy. He spoke to the Post on Thursday, the opening day of the 110th Congress, after making an appearance at the National Jewish Democratic Council reception honoring the six new Jewish members of Congress."

Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran  1/7/2007 London Times: "Israeli and American officials have met several times to consider military action. Military analysts said the disclosure of the plans could be intended to put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, cajole America into action or soften up world opinion in advance of an Israeli attack. Some analysts warned that Iranian retaliation for such a strike could range from disruption of oil supplies to the West to terrorist attacks against Jewish targets around the world."

Israel's Bad Influence  1/6/2007 AntiWar: "Scott Ritter, a former U.N. arms inspector in Iraq, has written a book, Target Iran, in which he accuses the Israeli government and its American lobby of pushing the U.S. into attacking Iran. Ritter writes, "Let there be no doubt: If there is an American war with Iran, it is a war that was made in Israel." He accuses some members of the lobby of dual loyalty and urges that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee be required to register as a foreign agent. He also blasts the Israeli lobby for its use of the Holocaust and for crying anti-Semite every time Israel is criticized. "This is a sickening trend that must be ended," he writes."

Beltway Insiders Versus Neo-Cons - Clash of the Elites  1/5/2007 Counterpunch: "A titanic power struggle is being waged within the policy elite or power elite, or more simply the U.S. ruling class. The clash is taking place over the war on Iraq, U.S. policy toward Israel--and ultimately over the best way to run the U.S. empire. The war on Iraq is shaping up as such a disaster for the empire that it can no longer be tolerated by our rulers in its present form. The struggle is as plain as the nose on your face; nevertheless it draws little comment. One reason is that we are taught to view matters political through the prism of Democrat versus Republican, whereas this struggle among our rulers cuts across party lines. On the "Left," few so much as allude to this internecine war, much less use it to good effect. This is apparently due to a very rigid, very dogmatic view of how empires function, indeed how they "must" function, and due to a fear of being labeled anti-semitic and thus running afoul of the Israeli Lobby. In many cases this silence reflects an actual sympathy among "liberals" for neocon foreign policy, either out of a latter day do-gooder version of the White Man's Burden, or an attachment to Israel."