The 2016 elections are more than two years away, so anything might happen between now and then. As of today, though, Democrats are giving overwhelming support for a Hillary Clinton run and she is ahead of presumptive Republican candidates by 6 or 7 points. As a one-term Secretary of State, she accomplished nothing of note. Today, her rhetoric on foreign policy as she gears up for the 2016 campaign is becoming hawkish to the point of stupidity. She is distancing herself from Obama's more moderate policies, getting in line with AIPAC's support of Likud policies, and, just may be, endangering the last chance for a two-state solution and a just settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.
Andy Kroll in an August 15 Mother Jones post writes: "In a recent interview with The Atlantic, Hillary Clinton went to great lengths to separate herself from her former boss, President Obama, in the realm of foreign policy. She unabashedly defended Israel's actions in the ongoing war in Gaza, chalked up civilian casualties in that conflict to 'the fog of war,' drew a hard line on Iran, and argued that the 'failure' of the Obama administration to arm Syrian rebel forces led to the rise of the Islamic State." Her comments are decidedly not those of a future President - at least not anyone that I'd like to support. We've already had the Bush-era neocons lead us into unjustifiable wars and drain the Treasury of at least $4 trillion.
How any fair-minded person can defend Israel's actions against Gaza - killing at least 1400 civilians including more than 400 children, destroying more than 10,000 homes and the enclave's only power plant, shelling six UN shelters for persons displaced by the assault, to name a few - is beyond imagination. These actions are war crimes - not something to be sloughed off as consequences of "the fog of war." She's signaling AIPAC that they should not abandon the Democrats because of Obama's policies and comments - tepid as they are in light of the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis brought about by the Israeli assault. Hell, the Israelis don't really believe anyone will prosecute the war crimes committed in Gaza - they never have been held accountable in the past. By the time the war crimes inquiry has recommendations to make, Hillary, with her bizarre take on the destruction in Gaza, will be on the horizon as potentially the next President.
And you can bet that Netanyahu and the right-wing thugs that are in power in Israel today are also taking note. Clinton's statements are basically saying to Bibi and his crowd, "Don't worry. I won't be as tough on you as Obama." (Not that Obama was in any sense tough but at least when Kerry became Secretary of State the US made an attempt to bring about a just peace in the region.) The Israelis stonewalled the Kerry negotiations for nine months and then sabotaged them by escalating settlement construction. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, the Palestinian Authority formed a unity government with Hamas. Netanyahu and his crowd then had the gall to blame that unity government for the breakdown of the peace talks. If they can drag their feet and be counterproductive for nine months while the world's eyes were focused on them, how easy it will be for them to delay any serious talks to produce a two-state solution for the next two years. Rebuilding Gaza and ending the seven-year blockade that has devastated that region will (or should) take up much of the world community's attention. Compared to what the IDF did to Gaza, the general oppression of the Palestinians seems "benign" - as some of the more ludicrous Israeli commentators and politicians describe the 47 year Occupation.
As for Clinton's comments blaming the rise of ISIS on Obama's failure to arm the Syrian rebels, one can only wonder if she has any comprehension at all at what is happening there. The Syrian civil war is a sectarian one. Assad and the Syrian government are primarily Shia. The rebel forces and ISIS are primarily Sunni. I'm trying to understand the logic of how arming the Sunni rebel forces would stop the rise of Sunni ISIS forces. That's right - there is no logic to the argument.
The Mother Jones article has an amusing "Who Said It, Clinton or McCain?" quiz. If I wanted John McCain to be President, I'd have voted for him in 2008. There's no groundswell of American support for a more belligerent foreign policy. Other than currying AIPAC support, I'm not sure why Clinton is making these comments.
It's difficult to support someone with these views and the Democratic Party needs a serious wake up call. It has been drifting rightward since the 1980's and its policies are centrist at best. Just saying "we're not as bad as the Republicans" is not good enough. Let's hope that Hillary gets a bit wiser on foreign policy in the next 2 years. Let's hope she gets to be more of a twenty-first century leader and less of a twentieth-century hawk.
Showing posts with label AIPAC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AIPAC. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Sunday Roundup - July 27, 2014
This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream corporate media. Today we look at Gaza, the US's Israel policy, and, in brief, Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine and Russia.
Gaza
The Israeli assault against Gaza continued unabated until Saturday morning. A 12-hour ceasefire went into effect July 26 after Israel and Hamas agreed to a temporary pause in the fighting. Israel had come under widespread criticism for its rejection of a seven-day humanitarian ceasefire brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry with Hamas' regional proxies. The Palestinian death toll in Gaza is now over 1000, the great majority of whom are civilians. More than 5000 have been wounded. One can only pray that the horrific slaughter taking place in Gaza will be ended permanently, that the devastating blockade that has crippled Gaza for the past seven years will be ended, and that the world community will send the necessary humanitarian aid to the beleaguered enclave to help it rebuild from this and past Israeli attacks.
Gaza Ceasefire Reveals Full Extent of Israeli Destruction [The Guardian, July 26]
Thousands of people in Gaza have ventured out from homes and shelters during a 12-hour ceasefire to find that whole streets and neighbourhoods have been destroyed in the last week. Shortly before the ceasefire took effect, at least 18 members of the al-Najar family, including many children, were killed in an air strike on Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip. The family had recently gone there to escape fighting in a nearby village, a Palestinian health official said. As the Palestinian death toll in the 19-day-long conflict topped 1,000, diplomatic efforts to forge a longer ceasefire continued in Paris. Foreign ministers from seven nations – the US, France, Britain, Italy, Germany, Turkey and Qatar – called for an extension of the truce.
Statement of UN High Commissioner on Human Rights
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said on Wednesday that Israel’s military actions are responsible for the death of a child every hour in recent days and observed, “Respect for the right to life of civilians, including children, should be a foremost consideration. Not abiding by these principles may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.” That is, in international law, Israel’s pretext for indiscriminate bombing– that Hamas hides out among non-combatants– is unacceptable. Israel is the occupying power in Gaza and has a duty to minimize non-combatant death, which it clearly is not doing... [Informed Comment, July 24]
Massacre at UN School/Refugee Shelter
As noted by Al Jazeera: More than 140,000 Palestinians have been displaced in Gaza by the fighting, many of them seeking shelter in buildings run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Juan Cole in his Informed Comment blog on July 25 wrote: A new element entered the current Gaza war on Thursday, as Israel shelled a UN school full of displaced persons taking refuge there and large protests broke out in the Palestinian West Bank. The shelling of the UNRWA school, which killed 15 and injured 200, was a war crime. The UN had given the school’s coordinates to the Israelis, so they knew it was a school and was holding displaced persons. The UN, when informed it would be shelled, asked for more time to evacuate people but were denied it. The attack occurred hours after the UN had warned that Israel's actions in the Palestinian enclave could constitute war crimes. For more on the Israeli shelling of the refugee shelter, see The Guardian July 24 article.
Israel Rejects Seven-Day Humanitarian Ceasefire Proposal
World reaction to the humanitarian disaster is growing - especially after the Israeli shelling of the UN school serving as a center for displaced persons and after Israel rejected a seven-day humanitarian cease-fire brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry with Hamas' regional proxies. Kerry is remaining in the Middle East for a few more days to attempt to narrow the differences between Hamas and the Israeli government for achieving a cease-fire. For more see the Al Jazeera, July 25 article.
Palestinian West Bank Protests and Friday Israeli strikes in Gaza
On Friday, Israeli strikes on 30 houses [in Gaza] killed another 19 people, including the head of media operations for Hamas ally Islamic Jihad and his son. [Al Jazeera, July 25]
Demonstrations in the West Bank against the Israeli assault has resulted in the killing of 6 Palestinians. In the occupied West Bank, where U.S.-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas governs in uneasy coordination with Israel, some 10,000 demonstrators marched in solidarity with Gaza overnight Thursday – a scale recalling mass revolts of the past. Protesters surged against an Israeli army checkpoint, throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails, and Palestinian medics said one was shot dead and 200 wounded when troops opened fire. The next day, medics said five Palestinians were killed in separate incidents near the West Bank cities of Nablus and Hebron, including one shooting that witnesses blamed on an apparent Jewish settler. [Al Jazeera, July 25]
The United States' Morally Bankrupt Israel Policy
Stephen Walt, Professor of International Affairs at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, writes in a July 22 article at the Huffington Post: Israel is [again] using weapons provided by U.S. taxpayers to bombard the captive and impoverished Palestinians in Gaza...As usual, the U.S. government is siding with Israel, even though most American leaders understand Israel instigated the latest round of violence, is not acting with restraint, and that its actions make Washington look callous and hypocritical in the eyes of most of the world...This Orwellian situation is eloquent testimony to the continued political clout of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and the other hardline elements of the Israel lobby. There is no other plausible explanation for the supine behavior of the U.S. Congress...or the shallow hypocrisy of the Obama administration...The explanation for America's impotent and morally bankrupt policy is the political clout of the Israel lobby. Barack Obama knows that if he were to side with the Palestinians in Gaza or criticize Israel's actions in any way, he would face a firestorm of criticism from the lobby and his chances of getting Congressional approval for a deal with Iran would evaporate.
Walt notes that the Israeli hard-line lobby isn't as powerful as it once was. Nevertheless, it is still able to keep roughly $3 billion in U.S. aid to Israel flowing each year; it can still prevent U.S. presidents from putting meaningful pressure on Israel; and it can still get the U.S. to wield its veto whenever a resolution criticizing Israel's actions is floated in the U.N. Security Council. This situation explains why the Obama administration made zero progress toward "two states for two peoples": if Israel gets generous U.S. support no matter what it does, why should its leaders pay any attention to Washington's requests?
Iraq
Iraq's most influential Shi'ite cleric urged political leaders on Friday to refrain from clinging to their posts - an apparent reference to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who has defied demands that he step aside...Maliki has come under mounting pressure since Sunni militants led by the hardline Islamic State swept across northern Iraq last month and seized vast swathes of territory, posing the biggest challenge to Maliki's Shi'ite-led government since U.S. forces withdrew in 2011. Critics say Maliki is a divisive figure whose alienation of Sunnis has fueled sectarian hatred and played into the hands of the insurgents, who have reached to within 70 km of the capital Baghdad. [Reuters, July 25]
Syria
Fighters from al Qaeda offshoot Islamic State killed at least 50 Syrian army soldiers...on Friday outside the northern city of Raqqa, as the radicals escalated their attacks on government forces, a monitoring group said...Islamic State...has advanced in Syria and taken over swaths of territory in neighboring Iraq in what it has described as a bid to establish an Islamic caliphate...Since its lightning advance in Iraq last month, the group has confronted government forces in Syria more frequently whilst continuing to attack rival rebel groups fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad. [Reuters, July 25]
Ukraine and Russia
Russia reacted angrily on Saturday [July 26]to additional sanctions imposed by the European Union over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis, saying they would hamper cooperation on security issues and undermine the fight against terrorism and organized crime. The 28-nation EU reached an outline agreement on Friday to impose economic sanctions on Russia...The EU also imposed travel bans and asset freezes on the chiefs of Russia's FSB security service and foreign intelligence service and a number of other top Russian officials. [Reuters, July 26]
"Today's attack underscores the imperative for the killing to stop and to stop now."
- Ban Ki Moon after the Israeli shelling of a UN refugee shelter on Thursday.
Gaza
The Israeli assault against Gaza continued unabated until Saturday morning. A 12-hour ceasefire went into effect July 26 after Israel and Hamas agreed to a temporary pause in the fighting. Israel had come under widespread criticism for its rejection of a seven-day humanitarian ceasefire brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry with Hamas' regional proxies. The Palestinian death toll in Gaza is now over 1000, the great majority of whom are civilians. More than 5000 have been wounded. One can only pray that the horrific slaughter taking place in Gaza will be ended permanently, that the devastating blockade that has crippled Gaza for the past seven years will be ended, and that the world community will send the necessary humanitarian aid to the beleaguered enclave to help it rebuild from this and past Israeli attacks.
Gaza Ceasefire Reveals Full Extent of Israeli Destruction [The Guardian, July 26]
 |
| Palestinian women react to the destruction in Beit Hanuon, northern Gaza Strip, during the ceasefire. Photograph: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images [Image appeared in The Guardian] |
Statement of UN High Commissioner on Human Rights
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said on Wednesday that Israel’s military actions are responsible for the death of a child every hour in recent days and observed, “Respect for the right to life of civilians, including children, should be a foremost consideration. Not abiding by these principles may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.” That is, in international law, Israel’s pretext for indiscriminate bombing– that Hamas hides out among non-combatants– is unacceptable. Israel is the occupying power in Gaza and has a duty to minimize non-combatant death, which it clearly is not doing... [Informed Comment, July 24]
 |
| The majority of those injured in the attack on the school were women and children. Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP Image appeared in The Guardian |
Israel Rejects Seven-Day Humanitarian Ceasefire Proposal
World reaction to the humanitarian disaster is growing - especially after the Israeli shelling of the UN school serving as a center for displaced persons and after Israel rejected a seven-day humanitarian cease-fire brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry with Hamas' regional proxies. Kerry is remaining in the Middle East for a few more days to attempt to narrow the differences between Hamas and the Israeli government for achieving a cease-fire. For more see the Al Jazeera, July 25 article.
Palestinian West Bank Protests and Friday Israeli strikes in Gaza
On Friday, Israeli strikes on 30 houses [in Gaza] killed another 19 people, including the head of media operations for Hamas ally Islamic Jihad and his son. [Al Jazeera, July 25]
Demonstrations in the West Bank against the Israeli assault has resulted in the killing of 6 Palestinians. In the occupied West Bank, where U.S.-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas governs in uneasy coordination with Israel, some 10,000 demonstrators marched in solidarity with Gaza overnight Thursday – a scale recalling mass revolts of the past. Protesters surged against an Israeli army checkpoint, throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails, and Palestinian medics said one was shot dead and 200 wounded when troops opened fire. The next day, medics said five Palestinians were killed in separate incidents near the West Bank cities of Nablus and Hebron, including one shooting that witnesses blamed on an apparent Jewish settler. [Al Jazeera, July 25]
The United States' Morally Bankrupt Israel Policy
Stephen Walt, Professor of International Affairs at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, writes in a July 22 article at the Huffington Post: Israel is [again] using weapons provided by U.S. taxpayers to bombard the captive and impoverished Palestinians in Gaza...As usual, the U.S. government is siding with Israel, even though most American leaders understand Israel instigated the latest round of violence, is not acting with restraint, and that its actions make Washington look callous and hypocritical in the eyes of most of the world...This Orwellian situation is eloquent testimony to the continued political clout of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and the other hardline elements of the Israel lobby. There is no other plausible explanation for the supine behavior of the U.S. Congress...or the shallow hypocrisy of the Obama administration...The explanation for America's impotent and morally bankrupt policy is the political clout of the Israel lobby. Barack Obama knows that if he were to side with the Palestinians in Gaza or criticize Israel's actions in any way, he would face a firestorm of criticism from the lobby and his chances of getting Congressional approval for a deal with Iran would evaporate.
Walt notes that the Israeli hard-line lobby isn't as powerful as it once was. Nevertheless, it is still able to keep roughly $3 billion in U.S. aid to Israel flowing each year; it can still prevent U.S. presidents from putting meaningful pressure on Israel; and it can still get the U.S. to wield its veto whenever a resolution criticizing Israel's actions is floated in the U.N. Security Council. This situation explains why the Obama administration made zero progress toward "two states for two peoples": if Israel gets generous U.S. support no matter what it does, why should its leaders pay any attention to Washington's requests?
Iraq
Iraq's most influential Shi'ite cleric urged political leaders on Friday to refrain from clinging to their posts - an apparent reference to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who has defied demands that he step aside...Maliki has come under mounting pressure since Sunni militants led by the hardline Islamic State swept across northern Iraq last month and seized vast swathes of territory, posing the biggest challenge to Maliki's Shi'ite-led government since U.S. forces withdrew in 2011. Critics say Maliki is a divisive figure whose alienation of Sunnis has fueled sectarian hatred and played into the hands of the insurgents, who have reached to within 70 km of the capital Baghdad. [Reuters, July 25]
Syria
Fighters from al Qaeda offshoot Islamic State killed at least 50 Syrian army soldiers...on Friday outside the northern city of Raqqa, as the radicals escalated their attacks on government forces, a monitoring group said...Islamic State...has advanced in Syria and taken over swaths of territory in neighboring Iraq in what it has described as a bid to establish an Islamic caliphate...Since its lightning advance in Iraq last month, the group has confronted government forces in Syria more frequently whilst continuing to attack rival rebel groups fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad. [Reuters, July 25]
Ukraine and Russia
Russia reacted angrily on Saturday [July 26]to additional sanctions imposed by the European Union over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis, saying they would hamper cooperation on security issues and undermine the fight against terrorism and organized crime. The 28-nation EU reached an outline agreement on Friday to impose economic sanctions on Russia...The EU also imposed travel bans and asset freezes on the chiefs of Russia's FSB security service and foreign intelligence service and a number of other top Russian officials. [Reuters, July 26]
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Sunday Round-Up - December 22,2013
This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from sources outside the US mainstream media.
Iran Sanctions Bill
The Jewish-American group Americans for Peace Now has condemned the proposed Iran sanctions bill circulated Thursday by 26 US Senators. "The mere act of introducing such a bill at this delicate juncture represents a reckless, provocative and wholly gratuitous step. The Geneva interim agreement with Iran demonstrates that sincere, determined diplomacy can deliver results....If the timing of its introduction weren't bad enough, the substance of the bill appears designed to undermine the initiative launched last month in Geneva and, bafflingly, to undermine international cooperation on Iran....Anyone who is truly concerned about curbing Iran's nuclear program should be outraged by this latest sanctions effort. For the first time in decades, there is an historic and promising diplomatic engagement with Iran, and the entire world is focused on the importance of resolving concerns about Iran's nuclear program and nuclear ambitions. Now is the time for members of the House and Senate to stand up to outside pressure, foreswear partisan and political grandstanding, and get behind the efforts of the Obama Administration and the international community to achieve a negotiated final agreement that does just that."
Juan Cole headlines his Informed Comment post of December 21:"Obama will Veto new Iran Sanctions, Israel War Mandate pushed by AIPAC Senators".
He then takes it to the 13 Democrats who are cosponsoring the bill. "This behavior is no surprise coming from the GOP, but the thirteen Democratic senators involved are traitors to the party. They are acting at the behest of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other American supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who actively wants to torpedo Obama’s Iran talks." Cole provides a transcript of Obama's comments on the matter from the Friday press conference, concluding that "Obama in his gentlemanly way excused the senators on the grounds that they might have tough reelection fights coming up in which hawkish posturing on Iran might be useful for fundraising and vote-getting. Nevertheless, the White House had earlier made clear that Obama would veto any such sanctions bill." But then Cole adds: "In fact, the vast majority of Americans approve of Obama’s Iran negotiations in polling and only a minority is opposed. So the rebel senators aren’t playing to the voters, but rather to determined and very wealthy special interests in the Northeast."
(See December 20 Left Bank Café post for further discussion.)
NSA Surveillance
As President Obama spoke Friday on possible reforms in the NSA spying program (specifically the NSA's holding of telephone records of Americans), new revelations from the documents leaked by whistle blower Edward Snowden were discussed in The Guardian. "British and American intelligence agencies had a comprehensive list of surveillance targets that included the EU's competition commissioner, German government buildings in Berlin and overseas, and the heads of institutions that provide humanitarian and financial help to Africa, top-secret documents reveal. The papers show GCHQ, in collaboration with America's National Security Agency (NSA), was targeting organisations such as the United Nations development programme, the UN's children's charity Unicef and Médecins du Monde, a French organisation that provides doctors and medical volunteers to conflict zones. The head of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) also appears in the documents, along with text messages he sent to colleagues." [The Guardian, December 20]
Selections from recent TomDispatch.com posts
Here are brief selections from and links to several recent posts.
Former Harper's Magazine Editor Lewis Lapham wonders why we have no equivalent of Mark Twain in today's "second Gilded Age" in an essay about that great American writer, laughter and comedy. (To be published in Lapham's Quarterly's Winter 2014 issue.)
Laughter follows from the misalignment of a reality and a virtual reality, and the getting of the joke is the recognition of which is which. The notions of what is true or beautiful or proper held sacred by the other people in the caucus or the clubhouse set up the punch line -- the sight of something where it’s not supposed to be, the story going where it’s not supposed to go, Groucho Marx saying, “Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot and look like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you. He really is an idiot.”
Commentator Bill Moyers, speaking at The Brennan Center, discusses the impact of money on politics and our democracy, the danger of shredding the social contract to privilege the donor class, and the unfinished work of America in "The Great American Class War, Plutocracy vs. Democracy".
We don’t have emperors yet, but one of our two major parties is now dominated by radicals engaged in a crusade of voter suppression aimed at the elderly, the young, minorities, and the poor; while the other party, once the champion of everyday working people, has been so enfeebled by its own collaboration with the donor class that it offers only token resistance to the forces that have demoralized everyday Americans.
Climate change journalist Dahr Jamail explores "what climate scientists just beyond the mainstream are thinking about how climate change will affect life on this planet." After discussing how the continuing rise in global temperatures will lead to an ice-free Arctic, which in turn may lead to a release of methane currently trapped in the ice, Jamail writes:
How serious is the potential global methane build-up? Not all scientists think it’s an immediate threat or even the major threat we face, but Ira Leifer, an atmospheric and marine scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and one of the authors of the recent Arctic Methane study pointed out to me that “the Permian mass extinction that occurred 250 million years ago is related to methane and thought to be the key to what caused the extinction of most species on the planet.” In that extinction episode, it is estimated that 95% of all species were wiped out.
(See The $60 Trillion Climate Time Bomb Left Bank Café post for further discussion of the methane release threat.)
Iran Sanctions Bill
The Jewish-American group Americans for Peace Now has condemned the proposed Iran sanctions bill circulated Thursday by 26 US Senators. "The mere act of introducing such a bill at this delicate juncture represents a reckless, provocative and wholly gratuitous step. The Geneva interim agreement with Iran demonstrates that sincere, determined diplomacy can deliver results....If the timing of its introduction weren't bad enough, the substance of the bill appears designed to undermine the initiative launched last month in Geneva and, bafflingly, to undermine international cooperation on Iran....Anyone who is truly concerned about curbing Iran's nuclear program should be outraged by this latest sanctions effort. For the first time in decades, there is an historic and promising diplomatic engagement with Iran, and the entire world is focused on the importance of resolving concerns about Iran's nuclear program and nuclear ambitions. Now is the time for members of the House and Senate to stand up to outside pressure, foreswear partisan and political grandstanding, and get behind the efforts of the Obama Administration and the international community to achieve a negotiated final agreement that does just that."
Juan Cole headlines his Informed Comment post of December 21:"Obama will Veto new Iran Sanctions, Israel War Mandate pushed by AIPAC Senators".
He then takes it to the 13 Democrats who are cosponsoring the bill. "This behavior is no surprise coming from the GOP, but the thirteen Democratic senators involved are traitors to the party. They are acting at the behest of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other American supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who actively wants to torpedo Obama’s Iran talks." Cole provides a transcript of Obama's comments on the matter from the Friday press conference, concluding that "Obama in his gentlemanly way excused the senators on the grounds that they might have tough reelection fights coming up in which hawkish posturing on Iran might be useful for fundraising and vote-getting. Nevertheless, the White House had earlier made clear that Obama would veto any such sanctions bill." But then Cole adds: "In fact, the vast majority of Americans approve of Obama’s Iran negotiations in polling and only a minority is opposed. So the rebel senators aren’t playing to the voters, but rather to determined and very wealthy special interests in the Northeast."
(See December 20 Left Bank Café post for further discussion.)
NSA Surveillance
As President Obama spoke Friday on possible reforms in the NSA spying program (specifically the NSA's holding of telephone records of Americans), new revelations from the documents leaked by whistle blower Edward Snowden were discussed in The Guardian. "British and American intelligence agencies had a comprehensive list of surveillance targets that included the EU's competition commissioner, German government buildings in Berlin and overseas, and the heads of institutions that provide humanitarian and financial help to Africa, top-secret documents reveal. The papers show GCHQ, in collaboration with America's National Security Agency (NSA), was targeting organisations such as the United Nations development programme, the UN's children's charity Unicef and Médecins du Monde, a French organisation that provides doctors and medical volunteers to conflict zones. The head of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) also appears in the documents, along with text messages he sent to colleagues." [The Guardian, December 20]
Selections from recent TomDispatch.com posts
Here are brief selections from and links to several recent posts.
Former Harper's Magazine Editor Lewis Lapham wonders why we have no equivalent of Mark Twain in today's "second Gilded Age" in an essay about that great American writer, laughter and comedy. (To be published in Lapham's Quarterly's Winter 2014 issue.)
Laughter follows from the misalignment of a reality and a virtual reality, and the getting of the joke is the recognition of which is which. The notions of what is true or beautiful or proper held sacred by the other people in the caucus or the clubhouse set up the punch line -- the sight of something where it’s not supposed to be, the story going where it’s not supposed to go, Groucho Marx saying, “Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot and look like an idiot, but don’t let that fool you. He really is an idiot.”
Commentator Bill Moyers, speaking at The Brennan Center, discusses the impact of money on politics and our democracy, the danger of shredding the social contract to privilege the donor class, and the unfinished work of America in "The Great American Class War, Plutocracy vs. Democracy".
We don’t have emperors yet, but one of our two major parties is now dominated by radicals engaged in a crusade of voter suppression aimed at the elderly, the young, minorities, and the poor; while the other party, once the champion of everyday working people, has been so enfeebled by its own collaboration with the donor class that it offers only token resistance to the forces that have demoralized everyday Americans.
Climate change journalist Dahr Jamail explores "what climate scientists just beyond the mainstream are thinking about how climate change will affect life on this planet." After discussing how the continuing rise in global temperatures will lead to an ice-free Arctic, which in turn may lead to a release of methane currently trapped in the ice, Jamail writes:
How serious is the potential global methane build-up? Not all scientists think it’s an immediate threat or even the major threat we face, but Ira Leifer, an atmospheric and marine scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and one of the authors of the recent Arctic Methane study pointed out to me that “the Permian mass extinction that occurred 250 million years ago is related to methane and thought to be the key to what caused the extinction of most species on the planet.” In that extinction episode, it is estimated that 95% of all species were wiped out.
(See The $60 Trillion Climate Time Bomb Left Bank Café post for further discussion of the methane release threat.)
Friday, December 20, 2013
Sabotaging diplomacy? What are they thinking?
Yesterday, thirteen Senate Democrats joined thirteen Republicans and began circulating a new Iran sanctions bill with the potential to derail the Iran nuclear talks. This action came in spite of requests from the White House that Senators hold off on any new Iran legislation while the nuclear talks are in progress. I'm ashamed to say that New Jersey's own senior senator. Robert Menendez, is one of the leading supporters of the proposal and introduced it with Republican Mark Kirk.
These thirteen Democrats should know better. They have put themselves in the camp of conservative hardliners in Iran and the Netanyahu government in Israel - about the only other people on the planet against the historic interim agreement achieved by the G3+3 with Iran just last month.
The influence of the lobbying group AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee), strong supporters of the right-wing Netanyahu, is all over this. Many, if not most, of the Senators pushing the legislation have received significant contributions from pro-Israel groups, who are heavily influenced by AIPAC. Menendez received more than $340,000 in campaign contributions in the six-year period ending December 31, 2012. Mark Kirk, the leading Republican proponent of the current legislation, received more than $925,000. All told, the 26 Senators received nearly $5,000,000 from pro- Israel groups. [maplight.org]
The proposed bill sets strong, and, likely illegal, conditions for a final agreement. "Among those conditions is a provision that only allows Obama to waive new sanctions, even after a final deal has been struck, if that deal bars Iran from enriching any new uranium whatsoever." [Daily Kos quoting Foreignpolicy.com, Dec.19] As a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Iran has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes such as energy and medicine. Denying them this right to the peaceful use of nuclear power is a clear violation of the meaning of the treaty. This is especially specious when we consider that Israel is a non-signatory to the NNPT and has 80 nuclear weapons sitting 1000 km or so from Iran's borders. This condition all but guarantees that no lasting détente will ever be reached with Iran.
But that isn't the worst part of this bill. The bill includes a non-binding provision that states that if Israel takes "military action in legitimate self-defense against Iran's nuclear weapons program", the United States should support it. Since when does the United States outsource its military and foreign policy to a foreign power?
As Andrew Sullivan writes on The Dish website:
As usual, English is the first casualty in propaganda. Any act of “self-defense” against a mere “program” is not an act of legitimate self-defense. In international law, you are allowed to defend yourself if attacked; you do not have a right to attack another country just because you don’t like one of their military programs (which the Iranian regime has, in any case, sworn it would never use). That would be a license to shred international law and any concept of just warfare. For the US Senate to proactively bless future aggressive military action by a foreign government when it is not justified by self-defense is an appalling new low in the Israeli government’s grip on the US Congress.
If the Senate goes ahead and approves the bill when it comes to the floor next year, President Obama will have no choice but to veto it. If he does not, he should hand back his Nobel Peace Prize. And the Senate should congratulate themselves for caving in to AIPAC and taking us all a step closer to war.
Other Notes
Being pro-Israel does not mean being anti-Iran diplomacy. Americans for Peace Now is a Jewish-American organization that supports the two-state solution and works for peace between Palestinians and Israelis. They recently circulated a petition asking Congress to allow time for the nuclear talks with Iran to succeed. It's a shame that this group of peace activists doesn't have the influence of AIPAC on potential donors.
Update
This afternoon, Americans for Peace Now updated its petition. You can sign the petition here and send it to your Senators.
Links
Link to Wikipedia entry on Americans for Peace Now
Link to Wikipedia entry on AIPAC
Correction
An earlier version of this post indicated that Charles Schumer of New York introduced the bill with Mark Kirk of Illinois. While Schumer was one of the 26 co-sponsors, it was Sen. Menendez, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair, that led the Democrats supporting the bill.
These thirteen Democrats should know better. They have put themselves in the camp of conservative hardliners in Iran and the Netanyahu government in Israel - about the only other people on the planet against the historic interim agreement achieved by the G3+3 with Iran just last month.
The influence of the lobbying group AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee), strong supporters of the right-wing Netanyahu, is all over this. Many, if not most, of the Senators pushing the legislation have received significant contributions from pro-Israel groups, who are heavily influenced by AIPAC. Menendez received more than $340,000 in campaign contributions in the six-year period ending December 31, 2012. Mark Kirk, the leading Republican proponent of the current legislation, received more than $925,000. All told, the 26 Senators received nearly $5,000,000 from pro- Israel groups. [maplight.org]
The proposed bill sets strong, and, likely illegal, conditions for a final agreement. "Among those conditions is a provision that only allows Obama to waive new sanctions, even after a final deal has been struck, if that deal bars Iran from enriching any new uranium whatsoever." [Daily Kos quoting Foreignpolicy.com, Dec.19] As a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Iran has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes such as energy and medicine. Denying them this right to the peaceful use of nuclear power is a clear violation of the meaning of the treaty. This is especially specious when we consider that Israel is a non-signatory to the NNPT and has 80 nuclear weapons sitting 1000 km or so from Iran's borders. This condition all but guarantees that no lasting détente will ever be reached with Iran.
But that isn't the worst part of this bill. The bill includes a non-binding provision that states that if Israel takes "military action in legitimate self-defense against Iran's nuclear weapons program", the United States should support it. Since when does the United States outsource its military and foreign policy to a foreign power?
As Andrew Sullivan writes on The Dish website:
As usual, English is the first casualty in propaganda. Any act of “self-defense” against a mere “program” is not an act of legitimate self-defense. In international law, you are allowed to defend yourself if attacked; you do not have a right to attack another country just because you don’t like one of their military programs (which the Iranian regime has, in any case, sworn it would never use). That would be a license to shred international law and any concept of just warfare. For the US Senate to proactively bless future aggressive military action by a foreign government when it is not justified by self-defense is an appalling new low in the Israeli government’s grip on the US Congress.
If the Senate goes ahead and approves the bill when it comes to the floor next year, President Obama will have no choice but to veto it. If he does not, he should hand back his Nobel Peace Prize. And the Senate should congratulate themselves for caving in to AIPAC and taking us all a step closer to war.
Other Notes
Being pro-Israel does not mean being anti-Iran diplomacy. Americans for Peace Now is a Jewish-American organization that supports the two-state solution and works for peace between Palestinians and Israelis. They recently circulated a petition asking Congress to allow time for the nuclear talks with Iran to succeed. It's a shame that this group of peace activists doesn't have the influence of AIPAC on potential donors.
Update
This afternoon, Americans for Peace Now updated its petition. You can sign the petition here and send it to your Senators.
Links
Link to Wikipedia entry on Americans for Peace Now
Link to Wikipedia entry on AIPAC
Correction
An earlier version of this post indicated that Charles Schumer of New York introduced the bill with Mark Kirk of Illinois. While Schumer was one of the 26 co-sponsors, it was Sen. Menendez, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair, that led the Democrats supporting the bill.
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