U.S.-Israel Political Maneuvers Go Deep and Dark

Steve Clemons at the Washington Note has a piece observing a new development in the increasingly adversarial U.S.-Israeli relationship: More secrecy.

As AIPAC boasts on its website of its influence on our Congress in imposing "crippling sanctions on Iran," AIPAC's long-held position detailed in a letter "[s]igned by over three-quarters of the entire Congress - 81 senators and 366 House members," Clemons notes "AIPAC itself has sent out this past week a roster of statements from Obama administration officials, that showed that much had been done to move the hard edged differences between the administration [and Israel] out of the public and into private channels."

Considering that our republic is founded on the foundation that the consent of citizens direct our elected representatives, this move towards secrecy (private channels) appears antithetical to democratic notions of citizens deciding the direction of public policy.

We are engaged in a political fight with a political enemy, but this fight ought to be discussed endlessly in the public sphere of our country.

In these pages Jeff Gates writes, "[f]orced to face the reality of an enemy within, [Israel], our military leadership signaled Obama that they are prepared to cover his back. The oath of office mandates a defense against all enemies. Yet it also places our defense under civilian control. ..."

Civilian control indeed, American citizen control. Let's reaffirm the alliance between American citizens and our government, a tradition dating back to our first president who warned of the dangers of foreign nations who seek to influence the American people and its government.

Israel, Detached from Reality, Devolves into a Neo-McCarthyite State

Update: Obama can't afford to continue Bush's Israel policy

Israel should know that reckless, neocon militarism will result in devastation for all concerned.

Perhaps the worst crime that a government or movement can commit today is to come forward with a peace proposal overwhelmingly supported by the world community.

Ask Hamas and Hezbollah.

Read Patrick Cockburn's Has Anything Changed Since Sabra and Chatila?
In Israel, Detachment From Reality is the Norm for another sober analysis of the sickness in domestic Israel.

At first I thought that little had changed since Sabra and Chatila. Once again there were the same tired and offensive excuses that Israel was somehow not to blame. Hamas was using civilians as human shields, and in any case – this argument produced more furtively –two-thirds of people in Gaza had voted for Hamas so they deserved whatever happened to them.

But on returning to Jerusalem 10 years after I was stationed here as The Independent's correspondent between 1995 and 1999 I find that Israel has changed significantly for the worse. There is far less dissent than there used to be and such dissent is more often treated as disloyalty. ...

Intolerance of dissent has grown and may soon get a great deal worse. Benjamin Netanyahu, who helped bury the Oslo accords with the Palestinians when he was last prime minister from 1996 to 1999, is likely to win the Israeli election on 10 February. The only issue still in doubt is the extent of the gains of the extreme right.

The views of these were on display this week as Avigdor Lieberman, the chairman of the Ysrael Beitenu party, which, according to the polls will do particularly well in the election, was supporting the isqualification of two Israeli Arab parties from standing in the election. 'For the first time we are examining the boundary between loyalty and disloyalty,' he threatened their representatives. 'We'll deal with you like we dealt with Hamas.'

Last year as the Free Gaza Movement was running the illegal Israili blockade to ship in humantiarian supplies, I read the comments in Haaretz. Comments like 'let them drown' and 'sink them" are common.

UN investigator Richard Falk is the focus of a piece today in Haaretz, UN human rights official: Gaza evokes memories of Warsaw Ghetto, and the comments are not much better.

But check out the piece:

There is evidence that Israel committed war crimes during its 22-day campaign in the Gaza Strip and there should be an independent inquiry, UN investigator Richard Falk said Thursday.

The mental anguish of the civilians who suffered the assault is so great that the entire population of Gaza could be seen as casualties, said Falk, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Falk, speaking by phone from his home in California, said compelling evidence that Israel's actions in Gaza violated international humanitarian law required an independent investigation into whether they amounted to war crimes.

I believe that there is the prima facie case for reaching that conclusion,’ he told a Geneva news conference.

Falk said Israel had made no effort to allow civilians to escape the fighting.

‘To lock people into a war zone is something that evokes the worst kind of international memories of the Warsaw Ghetto, and sieges that occur unintentionally during a period of wartime,’ Falk, who is Jewish, said, referring to the starvation and murder of Warsaw's Jews by Nazi Germany in World War II.

Israel has approached the brink of insanity and President Obama must put a halt to this madness through action, specifically withholding American military, economic and diplomatic support until Israel, an outlaw actor now, joins the community of nations and begins reparations to the Palestinian people.

See also Soldiers kill father and 4-year-old son and wound other family members in their home, a-Zeitun neighborhood, Gaza City for a typical report from Gaza under Israeli occupation and attack.

Build Baby, Build

Update: THE OPPORTUNITY OF INFRASTRUCTURE

Build big stuff out of little stuff.

Not as catchy (or as fun for Republicans) as "drill, baby drill" or 'let's buy and sell financial derivatives ,' but look for the national conversation to depart from the PR bromides that the mass media demands of presidential campaigns into the reality-based world of substance.

Wisconsin's Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS) had been laying the intellectual groundwork for years for labor-intensive, publicly financed capital projects, and the recognition and proliferation of patriotic manufacturers—"'original equipment manufacturers'" (OEMs) – that produce and sell automobiles, electrical appliances, and mining, transportation, and farm equipment."

COWS is a 501(c)(3) based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, famous for the “Wisconsin Idea,” working for "competitive market economy of shared prosperity, environmental sustainability, and capable democratic government."

And it has been a voice in the wilderness during the Bush years no matter how many MacArthur Foundation geniuses write at the place.

On the eve of Obama's victory, word of Obama's Thoughtful Stand on Infrastructure Investment is leaking out and COWS is likely to become a player because of its shared philosophy now getting a hearing.

The New America Foundation's Sherle Schwenninger and industrialist and philanthropist Bernard Schwartz were out way ahead of the pack in calling for massive government commitment to infrastructure investment, writes Steve Clemons.

The fact is we can build our way of this mess to the benefit of the American people, our infrastructure, the environment, the world's financial system, and the radical transformation of our energy system.

This would be done though implementing policies that are politically popular, hence the Republicans' desperate, too-little-too-late and too-incoherent campaign yelling communist, socialist and other such nonsense.

As for COWs and like-minded prescriptions: Jobs, living wages, health insurance, maybe these guys are aliens like the GOP wants us to believe.
- via mal contends

Obama in Madison

Turn off cable TV idiots and see change happening from the bottom-up.

From Feb. 12, 2008 in Madison, Wisconsin delivering a (VA, DC, MD) victory speech to 20,000-plus with an overflow crowd at the Kohl Center. It was louder in person.

Obama Embraced by Wisconsin

Madison, Wisconsin - No votes have been counted in Wisconsin. But the race is over.

This was demonstrated most poignantly in Eau Claire, WI, where overflow audiences heard Obama address 1,000s Saturday, and where Hillary cancelled her appearance. (Pictured lining up Saturday Eau Claire, shot by rhubarb)

- http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/16/%20211551/696/364/458321

- http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2%20/16/22631/6970

A mother who lost her son serving in Iraq gave a bracelet to Obama at the Eau Claire event to remind him of the reality of voting for war, and he still wears it.

Madison and Milwaukee, and southeastern Wisconsin will vote for Obama, but Eau Claire and northern Wisconsin will send him to Ohio and Texas to lift him, and us, to victory.

Latest out of Obama's three offices in Madison is that 100s of field volunteers hit the entire City of Madison (and surrounding areas) Saturday in anticipation of a winter storm today dumping snow/sleet/freezing rain in most of Wisconsin.

I know the policy differences between the two are slight, but it does matter if you believe in a candidate.

I just don't believe in Hillary; I do believe in Obama.