Genesis 12 : 3
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee:
and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's speech at the American Task
Force for Palestine's inaugural dinner in Washington on Wednesday
evening was but the latest sign that America's alliance with Israel is
weakening.
Rice's statement that "there could be no greater legacy for
America than to help to bring into being a Palestinian state,"
just about says it all. The secretary of state of a president who was
once friendlier to Israel than any of his predecessors now claims that
the establishment of a state for a people who have distinguished
themselves as the most overtly pro-jihad, terrorist society in the
world would be the greatest thing American could ever do.
Unfortunately, unless concerted steps are taken by the Israeli
government, Israeli citizens and the American Jewish community, the
downward trend in relations with the US will only get worse. Perhaps
most upsetting is the central role that a tiny minority of American
Jews has played in souring ties between Jerusalem and Washington. That
minority has undermined support for Israel in the Democratic Party and
now seeks to undermine Israel's position in the US in general.
The Democratic Party's sharp turn leftward in recent years has been a
major factor in weakening the US-Israel alliance. The ideological
transformation of the party is the fruit of a collaborative effort by
leading financiers, radical-leftist ideologues and political activists.
Together these forces built organizations that dictate the party's
agenda; finance the campaigns of politicians who embrace this agenda;
and work to defeat conservative Republicans and Democrats who disagree
with their agenda.
MoveOn.org is the most influential organization of this type
established in recent years. Its principal financiers are American
Jewish billionaires George Soros and Peter Lewis.
MoveOn.org first gained national prominence during the 2004 Democratic
presidential primaries. Howard Dean, a previously undistinguished
governor of Vermont, was an eminently forgettable also-ran with a
reputation among the few who knew of him as a political moderate who
was hawkish on national security. Then he was discovered by MoveOn.org
and the group began pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into his
campaign.
Dean veered to the left and began roundly condemning the war in Iraq.
Caught off-balance by Dean's challenge, all but one of the other
candidates shifted left as well and joined him in criticizing the war.
For his principled refusal to disavow the war in Iraq, Connecticut
Senator Joseph Lieberman earned the enduring enmity of MoveOn.org.
This summer, MoveOn.org played a central role in Lieberman's defeat in
the Democratic primary for his Senate seat. It contributed funds to
Lieberman's opponent, Ned Lamont, and its Web site served as a
clearinghouse disseminating anti-Lieberman propaganda.
Propaganda posted on the Web site was laced with blatant anti-Semitic
attacks. Postings repeatedly referred to Lieberman as "the Jew
Lieberman," and "ZioNazi Lieberman." These attacks were by no means
unusual. Indeed, anti-Semitic slurs against Israel and Jewish
Americans, and belittlements of the Holocaust, appear regularly in
MoveOn.org Web forums.
In a representative post, a MoveOn.org member compared President George
W. Bush negatively to Adolf Hitler, writing, "Bush is no Hitler. Hitler
was a socialist and believed in something beside money. He did not
dodge real military service and he believed at least in Germany, which
was a real nation and not a corporation like the US. Moreover, Hitler
did not use depleted uranium and phosphorous to burn people alive. He
did not condone the torture of prisoners 'for fun' or 'to relieve
stress.'"
According to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency report, Soros and his wealthy
Jewish American friends have now decided to aim their fire directly at
Israel. Soros has invited Lewis and other North American Jewish
plutocrats like Charles and Edgar Bronfman to join forces with him and
leftist Jewish American organizations including American Friends of
Peace Now, the Israel Policy Forum, Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, and the
Reform movement's Religious Action Center to form a political lobby
that will weaken the influence of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.
Many of the individuals and organizations associated with the
initiative have actively worked to undermine Israel. Soros caused a
storm in 2003 when, during a fund-raising conference for Israel he
alleged that Israel was partially responsible for the rise in
anti-Semitic violence in Europe because of its harsh response to
Palestinian terrorism.
In November 2005, the leaders of the Israel Policy Forum met with Rice
and pushed her to dismiss Israel's legitimate security concerns
regarding the operation of the Gaza Strip's border crossing points at
Rafah and Karni. Following their advice, Rice aggressively and publicly
pressured Israel to make dangerous concessions to the Palestinians that
involved Israel's relinquishment of effective control over its own
borders.
After Israel capitulated to Rice and an agreement was reached, Semour
Reich, one of the founders of the Israel Policy Forum, crowed, "I have
no doubt that we bolstered the secretary of state's instincts and
strengthened her opinion that aggressive American involvement was
needed to achieve practical results."
Ahead of then-prime minister Ariel Sharon's scheduled visit with Bush
in the summer of 2003, Edgar Bronfman, president of the World Jewish
Congress, wrote a letter to Bush along with former secretary of state
Lawrence Eagleburger expressing opposition to the security barrier and
asking the president to treat Sharon in the same manner he had treated
PA leader Mahmoud Abbas.
Weeks later, Bronfman criticized the Palestinians for not limiting
their terrorist assaults to Israeli residents of Judea, Samaria and the
Gaza Strip. In a media interview he said, "If the Palestinian suicide
bombers only went to the settlements and told the whole world they were
wrong, then the whole world would have had a case against Israel and
there would be a two-state solution by now. Instead, they sent them
into Israel proper, which is ghastly."
After Hamas's electoral victory in January, American Friends of Peace
Now, Israel Policy Forum and Brit Tzedek v'Shalom came together in an
ad-hoc coalition to shield the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority from
Congressional sanctions. Together they worked to sink the Palestinian
Anti-Terror Act, which enjoyed overwhelming support in the Congress and
the Senate and was backed by AIPAC. The legislation was designed to
update US policy toward the PA in the wake of Hamas's ascendance to
power.
The bill called for the immediate cessation not only of direct US aid
to the PA but also for the cut-off of US assistance to nongovernmental
and UN organizations operating in the PA that had connections to
terrorist organizations. The bill defined the PA as a terrorist
sanctuary and consequently would have barred the entry of PA officials
to and the operation of PA offices in the US, and placed travel
restrictions on PA and PLO representatives to the UN. The bill also
would have prohibited US officials from having any contacts with
officials from Hamas, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, Islamic Jihad and the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The bill was approved by an enormous majority in the House of
Representatives. Yet, due to the lobbying efforts of this group of
Jewish leftists, the Senate version was greatly watered down, and
included a presidential waiver that rendered the bill more or less
declaratory. Since there was little common ground between the two
versions of the bill, the Palestinian Anti-Terror Act was scuttled.
According to the JTA account, Soros would like to institutionalize the
ad-hoc coalition's success in undermining the Palestinian Anti-Terror
Act in a new lobby. Its founders all insist that theirs is a pro-Israel
group. Yet scrutiny of the groups' organizational and individual
members' actions leads to the inevitable conclusion that far from
acting to promote Israel, this new lobby will work to weaken Israel, to
weaken the Israel-American alliance and to strengthen Israel's enemies.
While its Jewish founders insist that they are pro-Israel, the fact of
the matter is that they are about to establish an American Jewish
anti-Israel lobby.
To its discredit, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government took no steps
to stymie the coalition's machinations against the Palestinian
Anti-Terror Act. Indeed, since 2003, Israel's governments have gone out
of their way to applaud these groups. Olmert's now infamous speech in
June 2005 where he said, "We are tired of fighting, we are tired of
being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating
our enemies," was made at the Israel Policy Forum's annual dinner.
BUT FOR all that, it is not too late to change course. The Jewish
American anti-Israel lobby is scheduled to be launched on October 26.
Now is the time for the Olmert government to forthrightly announce that
the new lobby is not pro-Israel, but rather anti-Israel.
Even if the government does no such thing, Israel's citizens have a
responsibility to explain to the organized American Jewish community
and to its umbrella organization, the Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations, that we, the citizens of the largest
Jewish community in the world, view these groups as anti-Zionist.
Israeli citizens should request an explanation for the inclusion of
some of these groups in pro-Israel umbrella organizations like the
Conference of Presidents when like their goal is to weaken Israel, to
weaken Israel's alliance with the US and to strengthen Israel's
enemies. Israeli citizens can and should send letters and e-mails to
this effect to the Conference at its New York offices.
One of the great strengths of the American Jewish community is its
pluralism. On a religious level, all communities - from the
ultra-Orthodox to the ultra-Reform - are recognized as Jewish
communities. But there is a line that everyone knows may not be
crossed. Jews for Jesus have removed themselves from the Jewish people
and everyone knows this. There is not one Jewish organization that
accepts them as Jews.
By the same token, the vast majority of American Jews support Israel.
As is the case with religious observance, this support runs the gamut
from disciples of Meir Kahane to followers of Yossi Sarid. But everyone
knows that organizations like Not in My Name, which acts as the Jewish
American branch of the International Solidarity Movement, seeks to
undermine IDF operations and makes common cause with Israel's enemies,
are not Zionist organizations.
Like Jews for Jesus, Jews who work to weaken Israel's security,
undermine Israel's relations with the US and strengthen Israel's
enemies take themselves beyond the broad tent of the American Jewish
pro-Israel community.
Israel's alliance with the US is based on the fact that most Americans
support Israel. American support for Israel finds its roots in
foundations as diverse as religion, politics, morality, security,
culture and economics. While the alliance is visibly weakened, its
foundations remain solid. To rebuild American political support for
Israel and to enhance the US-Israel alliance, it is imperative that
Israel be capable of understanding the nature of this support. This
understanding begins by making distinctions between our many friends
and our foes and acting on these distinctions. Not all of our friends
are Jews and not all Jews are our friends.
Original
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There could be no greater legacy for America than to help to bring into being a Palestinian state
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