Juan Cole wrote this piece (below) in August 30, 2004 that discusses this AIPAC, PNAC, Likud, WINEP connection. I think it's worth a quick read, under the circumstances. It also delves into that dilemma that inevitably occurs, even on DU: Sometimes, it becomes difficult to get into much detail about the Israeli thing without some people getting defensive and calling others anti-semitic.
When that happens, I think it is proof positive that we need to find an acceptable means of discussing how PNAC, AIPAC, WINEP and the hawkish Likud Israeli political system have infiltrated (and continue to infiltrate) our current (mis)administration without pointing fingers and calling people anti-semitic.
I view this issue as a political issue, not a race or religious issue.
I am reminded of a conversation I had with my volunteer supervisor prior to the election. We were discussing info that we had both become aware of relating to PNAC. It is difficult to discuss PNAC without also discussing the Israeli issue and various members of PNAC who have apparent dual American-Israeli citizenship and allegiances, and to question their motives. Also, the first news about the Franklin/AIPAC scandal had emerged at that time.
About halfway through the conversation, it dawned on me he might be Jewish (instinct and the luck I have about putting my foot in mouth told me so) so I stopped and asked him, "Are you Jewish?" He said "yes" and I apologized immediately for anything I might have said that might have offended him. He quickly said NOT to apologize, that nothing in the discussion was offensive and that he understood fully my concerns and he, himself, had similar concerns.
He then proceeded to tell me about his cousin in Israel, who was just getting out of prison for not completing his mandatory stint in the Israeli military. Instead of fighting, his cousin had opted to go to jail. He went into further detail about the hawk Likud party, and the more leftist doves, and how we in America are often not told the full story about how many people in Israel do not support their current Likud administration, etc. He recognized how Bush & Co. had numerous people calling the shots who appeared to have dual allegiances to America and Israel.
Anyone listening to his conversation taken out of context might have thought him anti-semitic, as he was very critical of the Likud agenda and the neoconservatives in American politics.
It was an enlightening conversation.
Anyway, as Cole notes in this piece, I think we need to find ways to discuss these types of important issues. By not calling out truth to power for fear of being called racist, bigoted (or anti-semitic in this case) stagnates the dialog and allows the neocon agenda and Bush & Co. to continue with their blatant, authoritarian, hawkish ways. It allows us to determine what policies are best for our own country vs. those that aren't.
AIPAC's Overt and Covert Ops
by Juan Cole
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a lobbying group that used to support whatever government was in power in Israel, and used to give money evenhandedly inside the U.S. My perception is that during the past decade AIPAC has increasingly tilted to the Likud in Israel, and to the political Right in the United States. In the 1980s, AIPAC set up the Washington Institute for Near East Policy as a pro-Israeli alternative to the Brookings Institution, which it perceived to be insufficiently supportive of Israel. WINEP has largely followed AIPAC into pro-Likud positions, even though its director, Dennis Ross, is more moderate. He is a figurehead, however, serving to disguise the far right character of most of the position papers produced by long-term WINEP staff and by extremist visitors and "associates" (Daniel Pipes and Martin Kramer are among the latter).
WINEP, being a wing of AIPAC, is enormously influential in Washington. State Department and military personnel are actually detailed there to "learn" about "the Middle East"! They would get a far more balanced "education" about the region in any Israeli university, since most Israeli academics are professionals, whereas WINEP is a "think tank" that hires by ideology.
I did some consulting with one U.S. company that had a government contract, and they asked me about WINEP position papers (many of them are just propaganda). When I said I would take them with a grain of salt, the guy said his company had "received direction" to pay a lot of attention to the WINEP material! So discipline is being imposed even on the private sector.
Note that over 80% of American Jews vote Democrat, that the majority of American Jews opposed the Iraq war (more were against it than in the general population), and that American Jews have been enormously important in securing civil liberties for all Americans. Moreover, Israel has been a faithful ally of the U.S. and deserves our support in ensuring its security. The Likudniks like to pretend that they represent American Jewry, but they do not. And they like to suggest that objecting to their policies is tantamount to anti-Semitism, which is sort of like suggesting that if you don't like Chile's former dictator Pinochet, you are bigoted against Latinos.
http://www.antiwar.com/cole/?articleid=3467
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