60

Is AIPAC in Violation of Federal Election Law?

Renee Parsons

What newcomer to the US House of Representatives, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Mn) may not have fully realized is that her critique of Israel influence on American politics would open a door that has previously been hermetically sealed as the third rail of American politics.

With its influence carefully concealed behind decades of deceptions, lies and ruthless intimidation and representing a mere 2.1% of the population spread across nine states, AIPAC and its supporters are like any school yard bully when confronted with a higher ethical authority. They throw down the race card, an archaic accusation of anti-semitism intended to play on a misguided empathy that is no longer effective when confronted with words that speak truth to power.

Rep. Omar first came to our attention during a House Foreign Affairs Committee meeting with an elegant takedown of convicted felon and neo-con purveyor of brutal atrocities Elliot Abrams who sorely deserved to be humiliated. Abrams is currently President Trump’s point man on plotting future military action in Venezuela.

From there, the controversies around Rep. Omar have whirled with comments purported to be anti-Semitic such as:

“It’s all about the Benjamins Baby.”

Israel has hypnotized the world; may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel”

Before that uproar had died down, she added:

I want to talk about political influence in this country that says it is ok for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country. Why is it ok for me to talk about the influence of the NRA, the fossil fuel industry or Big Pharma and not talk about a powerful lobbying group that is influencing policy?”

Bullies in American politics since 1948, the outrage, the denials and the hypocrisy came fast and furious with the usual anti-Semitic card being played and the ‘dual loyalty’ defense as if any one ethnicity or organization is entitled to special accommodating consideration by virtue of ….what exactly?

Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fl) responded with a question to Omar that “Jews have dual loyalty and can’t be patriotic members in the country in which they live?”

As an elected Member of the US House of Representatives, Rep. Deutch has an official, legal Constitutional responsibility that his sole and unquestionable loyalty is to the United States. Mr. Deutch’s ‘..in the country in which they live’ is dismissive and a less than overwhelming commitment to the land of one’s birth which happens to be his employer.

Of special concern is whether any AIPAC Congressional supporters possess a security clearance. If so, that clearance, where appropriate, needs to be revoked immediately and if those supporters cannot solely represent the United States with the utmost devotion and independence, they should resign.

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathon Greenblatt explained on March 4th that “Sometimes referred to as the dual loyalty charge, it alleges that Jews should be suspected of being disloyal neighbors or citizens because their true allegiance is to their co-religionists around the world or to a secret and immoral jewish agenda.”

Mr. Greenblatt takes it even further by contradicting himself in eschewing the dual loyalty meme and then confessing that ‘their true allegiance’ is to another country.

Meanwhile, on March 3rd, Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) tweeted that “No member of Congress is asked to swear allegiance to another country. Throughout history, Jews have been accused of dual loyalty, leading to discrimination and violence.”

It is alleged that to raise the issue of dual loyalty is anti-semitic yet both Rep. Deutch and Mr. Greenblatt admit it as all three raised the dual loyalty issue independently as if believing there is an entitlement right to dual loyalty to another country. They do not have that right any more than I have a right to claim dual loyalty to Scotland.

As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and its Oversight and Investigations subcommittee, Rep. Omar is not only correct but, in fact, is obliged to act as an elected Member of the House to question the double standard of exactly who is a loyal, true blue American for discussion and debate especially in the context of Article 6 of the United States Constitution known as the Oath Clause:

The Senators and Representatives and the members of several state legislatures and all executive and judicial officers, both of the US and of the several states shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution…”

While the Founding Fathers did not specify in Article VI that any elected member of Congress should not ‘be bound…’ to another country, any Court in the land will validate that Constitutional intent was that loyalty ‘be bound by oath or affirmation’ solely to the United States.

According to Supreme Court Associate Justice Joseph Story (1812-1845) that those sworn in were “conscientiously bound to refrain from all acts inconsistent”. During the American Revolution, General George Washington required all officers to subscribe to an oath renouncing any allegiance to King George III and pledging their fidelity to the United States.

In other words, under Article 6 there is no allowance for dual loyalty which would have been considered treasonous in the country’s earliest days and some would consider it treasonous today.

Thankfully, not a shrinking violet when it comes to politics, Rep. Omar responded with “I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress.”

In other words, Rep. Omar is confirming that she has been approached to pledge support since AIPAC’s demand that every single Member of Congress sign a loyalty statement to Israel has been privately reported and is common knowledge although the MSM pretend to be unaware.

In addition, former Representative Cynthia McKinney who served twelve years in the House of Representatives related her experience with the pro Israel lobby when she supported the Palestinan people, refused to support military policy as it would benefit Israel or sign the AIPAC loyalty pledge. Instead, her Congressional District boundaries were realigned and she earned a primary opponent who ultimately defeated her.

AIPAC’s stated purpose is to lobby Congress on issues and legislation related to Israel but that they ‘do not rate or endorse candidates for election or appointed office or directly contribute’ to a campaign. Who do they think they are kidding? AIPAC dodges registering with the FEC by the use of shell organizations and by requiring its members to join its Congressional Club and donate to the campaigns of certain members of Congress in order to receive exclusive membership benefits. They also annually sponsor free round trip visits to Israel for Members of Congress otherwise known as junkets.

It is a curiosity that AIPAC, the American Israel Political Affairs Committee alleges that it is not a political action committee even as it provided $3.5 million in campaign contributions in 2018. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, AIPAC has not registered its financial activities with the Federal Election Commission as if they have special entitlement.

The backstory is that in 1990, a unanimous FEC decision cleared AIPAC from charges of coordinating campaign contributions with 27 other pro Israel PACs since acting in collusion is barred by Federal law. Despite ‘similarities in campaign contributions’ and an overlap of membership and shared officers, FEC General Counsel Lawrence Noble reached a finding of ‘insufficient evidence’ to require AIPAC to adhere to US election law.

To date, AIPAC is not registered with the FEC as a Political Action Committee nor is it registered with the Department of Justice as a foreign agent representing the interests of a foreign country.

Renee Parsons has been a member of the ACLU’s Florida State Board of Directors and president of the ACLU Treasure Coast Chapter. She has been an elected public official in Colorado, an environmental lobbyist at Friends of the Earth and staff member of the US House of Representatives in Washington DC. She can be found on Twitter @reneedove31.

SUPPORT OFFGUARDIAN

If you enjoy OffG's content, please help us make our monthly fund-raising goal and keep the site alive.

For other ways to donate, including direct-transfer bank details click HERE.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

60 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
mark
mark
Mar 19, 2019 11:27 PM

Another outbreak of “anti Semitism.” People are opposing another £50 million (or is it £50 billion) “holocaust memorial” in Westminster. Soon we’ll have one of these on every street corner and every Tuesday will be a “holocaust memorial day” dedicated to the six gazillion.

Helmut Taylor
Helmut Taylor
Mar 20, 2019 6:39 AM
Reply to  mark

Wha’bart der holocaust visited upon Vietnam, Irak, Yugoslavia, Haiti…and ad infinitum?
WHERE are we to erect their memorials?

Toilet paper constitution
Toilet paper constitution
Mar 18, 2019 3:11 PM

“Is AIPAC in Violation of Federal Election Law?”

We have entered the era where the Federal Election Law is perhaps in violation of AIPAC rules and objectives … therefore Federal Election Law should be amended to make AIPAC happy.

And while we’re at it, the US constitution is probably anti-semetic for not proclaiming “Israel First”!

Helmut Taylor
Helmut Taylor
Mar 18, 2019 5:07 PM

Spotonjon!

Martin Usher
Martin Usher
Mar 17, 2019 2:02 AM

This ‘dual loyalty’ question has come up before when John F. Kennedy was elected President. He was a Catholic and he had to make it very plain that his first and only responsibility was to the Constitution, not Rome. So the question isn’t exclusively for Jewish people, its for anyone. The problem with AIPAC is that its so open, so blatant — imagine the reaction of the US public if Rome demanded (secular) influence over US legislators.

Ultimately all this is a demonstration of why its a very bad idea to mix religion with national identity. Quite apart from it being discriminatory it sets the stage for endless conflict about who’s religion, which sect and so on.

binra
binra
Mar 17, 2019 10:11 AM
Reply to  Martin Usher

In what sense isn’t ‘nation’ a religion? Does it join you with your fellows to something greater than yourself – ostensibly tangible with borders and territory, invoked by various symbols as an identity in shared purpose? There are many different perspectives on the idea of ‘nation’ that focus on different things. All bound up with self identity.

Conflicts of interest arise from split allegiance and this can be within families, institutions and governments.

Priority of allegiance – in what is first in our life, mind, word and deed, is the key fact from which all else follows.

Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and all else shall be added you.
To thine own self be true and it follows…thou canst be false to none.

However it is worded, this choice or acceptance is the most intimate honesty or foundation from which we live, or, is an evasion of intimacy in allegiance to self in image and form.
To be true to, or align under, a masking or armouring sense of self-inflation or self-protection, meets a different world – whether such a mask uses religious forms and symbols or of any other presentation of accepted respectability or authority – such as scientific, business and corporate, academic, or social-political.

Corruption is when forms are used to mask over a lack of alignment or allegiance to truth or honesty – this adulterates the currency of exchange because such forms becomes associated with hypocrisy and deceit and make oppositional postures seem morally righteous, and open new forms in which to mask false witness or self-evasion.

Corruption allows destructive purpose to operate through channels of legitimacy or trust.
The nature of self-evasion is a self-hatred – but rarely owned as such because once engaged in a self-conflicted sense of identity, we need and seek cause for hatred outside ourselves – and common identity in reinforcement of our own escape by the denial or attack on the ‘other’.

Corruption is the lie and the father of it, in the wish that another suffer in my place so that their sacrifice is my salvation, and my wound and grievance always calling forth the demand for sacrifice that I or we are exempted from – being special and specially set over others.

Loyalty at expense of self-honesty is a pact with the ‘devil’, or an idol of power or protection that then becomes a subjection under deceit. Insofar as we wake to life, we suffer false idea and ideal to fall and alight and align more truly with a love or truth, and the truth of love.

But identity and ability is turned to better serve life rather than destroyed or demonised by promise of power or freedom that never really delivers but more call to sacrifice, because it is our true presence that is denied our relationships and our world by the assertion of a marketing or weaponising ruse.

wardropper
wardropper
Mar 16, 2019 11:21 PM

Being in violation of ANY US law is what their politicians now practise in earnest.
The Constitution? … Not very comfortable toilet paper.
The Law? … A nice career for lawyers.
Systemic Corruption? … You bet.
Washington should be banished to Mars.

Alpaca Sauce Monster
Alpaca Sauce Monster
Mar 16, 2019 11:08 PM

“With its influence carefully concealed behind decades of deceptions, lies and ruthless intimidation and representing a mere 2.1% of the population spread across nine states, AIPAC and its supporters”

Uh, what? Not all AIPAC supporters are Jewish and not all Jews are AIPAC supporters.

You’re no ally of Ilhan Omar with this nonsense.

Helmut Taylor
Helmut Taylor
Mar 17, 2019 5:27 PM

Yeah, well……..know’t ar mean, loike?

Zachary Guadamour
Zachary Guadamour
Mar 16, 2019 8:52 PM

“People sometimes refer to Israel as an ally. . .Israel is not an ally. One becomes an ally through a treaty of alliance, and allies take special pains to try to co-ordinate their policies as much as possible. I don’t think the Israelis have ever wanted that kind of obligation. They prefer to take their chances on going their own way and expecting Jewish support in this country to force the United States to go along.” Dean Rusk, United States Secretary of State under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, the second longest serving Secretary of State in the history of the country.

Pat Buchanan, Columnist, long time Washington insider and former candidate for the Presidential nomination for the Republican party: “The U.S. Congress is “Israeli-occupied territory.
Occupiers, as the Palestinian people can testify, have only the best interests of the Occupier at heart.”

dhfabian
dhfabian
Mar 16, 2019 7:11 PM

There is good reason to be suspicious when only one on a long list of similar organizations is targeted — particularly by those who oppose the right of Israel to exist (in spite of the odds). There is good reason to be suspicious of that opposition when their allegations are contradicted by the facts. Understandably, US liberals oppose the right wing ideology of Israel’s government (a separate issue from the nation’s right to exist) — yet they do not oppose the extreme right wing governments of the Arab countries. It simply became fashionable to target Israel every time they resist the demands of our own government, to be a useful clone of the US..

Disregard the fact that the lion’s share of US (monetary and military) aid goes to those countries that seek the destruction of the Jewish nation, toward establishing a 100% Arab Mideast. Never mind that Jews are indigenous to that bit of land (some 1% of the region), historically called Palestine, restored and renamed Israel in 1948. Never mind that the Arab oil lobbies have their hands firmly around the throats of those in Congress. None of this fits the popular anti-Israel ideology. Never mind all of this, because there is little room for truth in today’s American politics.

Some Random Passer-by
Some Random Passer-by
Mar 16, 2019 7:22 PM
Reply to  dhfabian

Not much truth in that post either. But it’s cool to lie to the goyim, no?

Helmut Taylor
Helmut Taylor
Mar 16, 2019 7:47 PM
Reply to  dhfabian

Can’t find fault in yer argument: least not from a Christian, “human” or post- Old Testament point of view. Well said, Cock! Whaddya think of the Shakespeare’s profiling yer Yid persona in Merchant o’ Venedig?

Helmut Taylor
Helmut Taylor
Mar 17, 2019 7:21 AM
Reply to  Helmut Taylor

Nobody is into Shaky? Eddie l of England (1209) and Phil the Fair of France (1306) were “racsts”? Jesus threw’em arta der Temple..and woss der meanin’ o’ der Alhambra Decree?

Helmut Taylor
Helmut Taylor
Mar 17, 2019 5:31 PM
Reply to  Helmut Taylor

Only 2 shills abart the place? And unedicated at thart!

Paul
Paul
Mar 16, 2019 10:05 PM
Reply to  dhfabian

Which countries seek the destruction of Israel? Egypt and Jordan, which Israel has peace treaties with? The Gulf Arabs, who Israel has back door relations with? Jews are indigenous to Palestine? Really? The early Jewish colonisers were indigenous to Poland and Russia. They were as indigenous to Palestine as I am. The Arab lobby has Congress by the throat? What Arab lobby? Utterly delusional, irrational Zionist rubbish.

mark
mark
Mar 17, 2019 12:56 AM
Reply to  dhfabian

No other organisation comes remotely near the complete stranglehold of AIPAC over US political life and media.
That is why it is “targeted”, ie noticed. It is the elephant in the room that can no longer be ignored.
If this stranglehold was exercised by Cambodia, or Nepal, or Tunisia, or Botswana, they would be “targeted.” But they don’t. So they aren’t.
US teachers are not required to swear an oath of loyalty to Cambodia on pain of dismissal.
It is not illegal to criticise Nepal, on pain of 20 years’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine..
Tunisia has not just been given another $38 billion, to add to hundreds of billions in tribute already extorted
America does not wage endless multi trillion dollar wars for Botswana every time its president visits Washington and snaps his fingers. ,
People oppose the right of the racist apartheid regime of Israel to exist, just as they previously opposed the right of the racist apartheid regime of South Africa to exist. A piece of land does not cease to exist, unless it disappears under the sea through global warming. A criminal, racist, terrorist regime ceases to exist because it has no right to exist, and is replaced by a government which respects human rights and basic civilised standards for all its citizens.
US liberal politicians do not oppose the right wing regime in Israel, or anything else about Israel. They are 30 shekel whores who know which side their bread is buttered. Any politician who utters a word of criticism about Israel is immediately broken by AIPAC. Any media employee or public official who does likewise is instantly dismissed upon demand by the Zionist Lobby.
The US does not oppose the “right wing regimes” of Arab countries, because they are quisling stooges and puppets serving US and Zionist interests. As the Orange Baboon himself said, they wouldn’t last a fortnight without being overthrown by their own people, if they were not propped up and kept in power.
The Zionist Regime does not have to “resist the demands” of the US. Because there are no such demands. The demands are all in the other direction. Demands for hundreds of billions in tribute. Demands for unlimited quantities of free weapons, courtesy of the goy taxpayer. Demands for unlimited diplomatic support. Demands to ignore the existence of its huge illegal nuclear arsenal. Demands to wage wars and destroy one neighbouring country after another on its behalf. Demands which are always met. Because America is Israel’s bitch.
US aid, or more accurately tribute, goes almost exclusively to the Zionist Regime. Countries like Shady Wahabia and the Gulf Dictatorships BUY hundreds of billions in arms they do not need and cannot use, paying grossly inflated prices, as a form of protection money in return for the survival of their corrupt, repressive dictatorships.
The Zionist Regime seeks to expand and control an empire encompassing all of Occupied Palestine, all of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, and parts of Egypt, Turkey, Iraq and Shady Wahabia. It actively seeks the destruction of these states, using dumb goy US muscle, money and blood, controlled by AIPAC and the Ziocons.
Jews, or people who currently claim to be Jews, have no historic connection whatever to Palestine. Their ancient homeland is central Asian Khazaria.
The Palestinians are the real descendants of the historic Jews of Biblical Palestine. They remained in the Holy Land and became absorbed by other cultures over the course of centuries.
The oil companies are an irrelevance, a smokescreen for Zionist machinations and Zionist domination.

Helmut Taylor
Helmut Taylor
Mar 17, 2019 7:28 AM
Reply to  mark

Mark, you should muse (and report) on the mechanisms which have brought about this kettle of fish! ‘Cos dunnit schmell (to high heavern)?

binra
binra
Mar 17, 2019 5:22 PM
Reply to  mark

“The oil companies are an irrelevance, a smokescreen for Zionist machinations and Zionist domination.”

Well, the means to deceive a man is through what they want to believe. Self-specialness, exclusive privilege above the common lot – or law – along with a sense of wealth and power that remains with them while they remain loyal. Wealth can therefore be used as leverage or power to buy or distort or set up agenda by which lawful or due process is leveraged or effectively usurped.

The saying is that birds of a feather flock together, and the mafia-minded seek monopolistic control of needs, goods or services, so as to not only ‘tax’ or extract protection money but as a mindshare of captive revenue stream or farm.

A key part of all this is that we are hackable or deceived through a ‘fallen human nature’ that is in some sense of the same feather – that is a wish to be as we are not rising from an induced sense of self-lack. The boom is opened by the easy and common greed of getting from the conditions of an abundance. The bust comes from the undermining of the foundations of such a dependency. Both of these can occur by design, or by timed interventions, ruses and inducement to self-illusion.

The temptation to dominate the world comes from seeing the possibility of it and buying into its terms. Focusing of the promise without reading through the terms is a way of being deceived.
I feel it worth noting that honesty of being is without deceptive intent, and that truly appreciating anything is a matter of an honest or true relationship.

In a prison or madhouse, inmates can jostle for position such as to become so identified in insanity as to then defend against the sanity of an open door – because outside their ‘kingdom’ there is no support for the ‘specialness’ and nor is there the comforts of prison food or diversionary entertainments by which inmates have learned to tolerate and normalise loss of freedom to a managed substitute.

Many who were first shall be last, and those who would be first for themselves alone cannot recognize anything outside such a mind-dictate and so are last to wake from the world that such a mind brings in tow.

The Trojan horse worked through the exploiting of the Trojan’s religious devotions and identity.
Is nothing sacred? Not in a world of the forms, images and symbols worshipped in place of a true discernment.

Discernment is like to the endorsement to be vigilant against deceit – and FOR peace of a true recognition. The information age is of course a disinfo age of deceit without the navigational guidance of an inner devotion to truth or self-honesty. Look therefore to the altar of your own ‘Temple’ and ensure that images of a false purpose have not interjected false currency.

Haltonbrat
Haltonbrat
Mar 17, 2019 1:13 PM
Reply to  dhfabian

“Never mind that Jews are indigenous to that bit of land (some 1% of the region), historically called Palestine, restored and renamed Israel in 1948.”

And day after day Israel continues to carry out its genocide (initially under the terrorist Jewish group’s Plan Dalet) against the original inhabitants of this area of land claiming that their God it to them. I note that newcomers to Israel might have to prove their Jewish ancestry by a DNA test. The expected DNA is Khazarian not semetic.

Helmut Taylor
Helmut Taylor
Mar 17, 2019 2:37 PM
Reply to  Haltonbrat

Haltonbart, why did Jaysus throw’em arta der temple? Or is that just a pernicious, anti-semitic, racist misrepresentation of historical fact? And why did Eddie der First ban’em from England in 1290 (as did Phil der Fair, King of France in1309). And Diddeycoy Cromwell got cash from Amsterdam to lett’em back in in the 1690’s.

Joe
Joe
Mar 18, 2019 8:13 PM
Reply to  dhfabian

Deluded nonsense! “Israel” is genocidal, rogue state, founded and maintained by terrorism. It exists on stolen Palestinian land and has NO right to exist.

Helmut Taylor
Helmut Taylor
Mar 18, 2019 8:18 PM
Reply to  Joe

Joe, ole bean – are yew bein’ antiseminal? You read Shakespeare?

Tora Bollakov
Tora Bollakov
Mar 16, 2019 4:27 PM

Why is it so difficult to find out who in government holds citizenship of a foreign country? Isn’t disclosure required?

vexarb
vexarb
Mar 16, 2019 3:21 PM

Tangentially on topic because French President Micron works for Rothsrhild, as do most U$ politicians. But only in France are the People vigorously protesting. Ramin Mazaheri in The Saker is quite funny on their 16th week:

“As a journalist who has covered every medium- to major-sized protest movement in France in the last decade (and the small ones, i.e. pro-Palestine, anti-imperialism, anti-capitalism, etc.), I have come to deeply resent and fear the Yellow Vests.

What a damned long workout they impose on us! They are marching 10-15km every Saturday, with zero consideration for TV journalists who have to carry equipment. Furthermore, why on earth do they march so damned fast?! If Guinness keeps this record, the Yellow Vests must take the crown for “protester km/h”.

This is surely the legacy of the constant police attacks during the first six weeks – you can’t hit what you can’t catch.”

https://thesaker.is/yellow-vest-week-in-review-march-16-to-be-the-biggest-march-in-months/

Antonym
Antonym
Mar 16, 2019 3:53 PM
Reply to  vexarb

These Yellow Vests invented various ways to bypass “Big Brother” even with CCTV etc.! No leaders, fast marches, shawls etc. Chinese, Americans, British etc. citizens take notice of the ever revolutionary French: your Dragon has weak spots too.

Makropulos
Makropulos
Mar 16, 2019 3:06 PM

“They throw down the race card, an archaic accusation of anti-semitism intended to play on a misguided empathy that is no longer effective when confronted with words that speak truth to power.”

Perfect. That sums up the whole strategy.

George Cornell
George Cornell
Mar 16, 2019 4:41 PM
Reply to  Makropulos

I am reminded about Tommy Smother’s dilemma when he fell into a vat of chocolate. Puzzled as to what to do, he decided to yell Fire! Fire!

When asked why , he replied, “because no one would come if I yelled “chocolate”!

Those who see anti-semitism in all dialogue, take note.

crank
crank
Mar 16, 2019 10:37 AM

The people of Syria revolted against Assad’s repressive dictatorship 8 years ago today, demanding a more just and free government. Peace loving people around the world stand in solidarity with them in this struggle!
Ilhan Omar (yesterday)

It’s not hard to get stuff like this right. So what is going on with people like Omar?

There is a ‘false consciousness’ on the Left about Israel, AIPAC and the issues that branch out from them.
Even relatively radical anti-war voices like Caitlin Johnstone re-confirm in their writing the dogma that Israel is best understood as a client state and an outpost of American Empire.
‘What we call Israel is functionally just the Middle Eastern disruption wing of this empire. The people in control of this alliance place no special value on Israel beyond its usefulness in advancing plutocratic agendas in the Middle East.’ she writes.
To see any value in exploring another explanation for Israel’s uniquely exceptional status within that empire, is for her, and most on the Left, to cross over into ‘bad conspiracy theory’ or racism..

However, in order to hang together, this line of argument has to pretty much ignore or bat away quite a few inconvenient facts. These facts will not go away.
She writes, ‘The people who are actually calling the shots in this world don’t care about Judaism or the Jewish people…’
Is that really true ? Is it true with respect to Jared Kushner ? It certainly seems to be not true, yet if you point that out, you are somehow ‘beyond the pale’.
That is the key problem on the Left at the moment I would say.

Paul Carline
Paul Carline
Mar 16, 2019 11:42 AM
Reply to  crank

The comment suggests that the USA is the dog and Israel merely the tail (and AIPAC just the hairs on the end of the tail?). Comments by Netanyahu and others – and Israel’s behaviour – suggest otherwise. A requirement to swear allegiance to Israel suggests this is the tail wagging the dog and not vice versa.
The essential question – not just for the USA – is: how does Israel continually get away with its land theft, its 70-year long appalling treatment of Palestinians amounting to genocide, its wholly illegal bombing of Syria amounting to war crimes etc., etc., (not forgetting its complicity in the WTC and Pentagon attacks) – and whether and how an end can be brought to these crimes, and to the corrupting and wholly disproportionate influence of a group which constitutes such a minute portion of the electorates of many countries?
Nonetheless, I am grateful to the commenter for reporting the dismaying words of Omar about Syria.

vexarb
vexarb
Mar 16, 2019 12:46 PM
Reply to  Paul Carline

Perhaps Omar is Muslim Sisterhood or WSWS? These organizations are anti-Syritic.

mark
mark
Mar 16, 2019 4:35 PM
Reply to  vexarb

It might be just prejudice on her part. I’ve spoken to a lot of moslems and it’s surprising how much visceral hatred they (Sunni moslems) express for the Shias. This seems to be general, and of course it has been exploited by outside colonisers and exploiters and Zionists dating right back to the Crusades.

Helmut Taylor
Helmut Taylor
Mar 16, 2019 12:52 PM
Reply to  Paul Carline

A-Pac or No-Pac: Jesus threw’em art’a der temple fer usury, Edward l threw’em arta England in 1290 (as did Phil der Fair in 1309 of what became La Grande Nation) Shakespeare profiled the Jewish persona in the character of Shylock…….and why is it said (and common knowledge) that nobody actually likes der Jews? In support of which, consider this fact: in the Federal Republic all Jewish Kindergarten/nursery schools enjoy ACTUAL full-time police protection! Now what does that tellyas?
In passing: Who listens to Pink Floyd?

Helmut Taylor
Helmut Taylor
Mar 16, 2019 6:23 PM
Reply to  Helmut Taylor

Who are the “3” deniers? Smells of dual loyalty……aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh

Cesca
Cesca
Mar 17, 2019 6:03 AM
Reply to  Helmut Taylor

I’m a millennial with a serious appreciation of Pink Floyd: “On the turning away, from the pale and downtrodden…” And Roger Waters rocks in truth!

Personally, i do think the Israeli Zionists are US stooges in the ME, their immense power comes from all the dirty deeds they’ve done for the West, particularly the US. They know where the bodies are buried and the West shells out to prevent them being dug up.

crank
crank
Mar 16, 2019 1:15 PM
Reply to  Paul Carline

Israel can try to sink American warships without consequence. They can run extensive spy rings on mainland US territory without consequence. They can get special access to 5eyes surveillance, unlike anyone else outside that anglophone circle. They have a stranglehold on American politics in terms of funding and lobbying pressure. They have many supporters in the cultural industries and publishing which actively seek to shape the debate on international affairs.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/israels-stranglehold-on-american-politics/

https://theintercept.com/2014/08/04/cash-weapons-surveillance/

For too many though, AIPAC ‘is nothing fundamentally to do with Jewish politics’, and Israel is definitely the tail wagged by the dog.
As long as you forget about all that other stuff, everything is fine.

milosevic
milosevic
Mar 16, 2019 1:33 PM
Reply to  Paul Carline

the tail wagging the dog and not vice versa

Brian harry
Brian harry
Mar 16, 2019 10:40 PM
Reply to  milosevic

What an absolute disgrace. America’s elected representatives, grovelling at the feet of their MASTER…..

Helmut Taylor
Helmut Taylor
Mar 16, 2019 1:39 PM
Reply to  crank

I would contend that this is a case of: “The plot thickens” – no more, no less. ‘Cept for the fact that the Pallys (despite the terms of the Balfour deal) have to pay the price in bludd! Long live Pink Floyd!

BigB
BigB
Mar 16, 2019 1:48 PM
Reply to  crank

You see, I think that second italicized statement is true. I think capitalistic civilization has produced an ethnocentric exceptionalist elite whose ethnicity is their own. Call it a global supra-society or dominium that exists “offshore”. They owe no allegiance to any particular nation state, race or ethno-religious group. Any allegiance is purely a marriage of convenience. Essentially, they tax-farm all of us.

You never actually stated what you think. I mean, essentially, we have lost all control …all of us. Even the power elite – as can be imputed from their massive spending on means of control – no longer feel in control. Otherwise, why spend valuable profit on others when you can hoard it yourself?

We, all inclusively, the powerful and the weak, master and slave, have lost touch with the intensity and immediacy of experience. Symbolic, iconic, material, or representative forms of experience are an increasingly pale imitation and half-life substitute for life. The roots of this are universal and pan-global.

Of course, it could be the Judaisation of Western culture. It just seems to me that Western, and elite culture everywhere, was pretty rotten long before it was allegedly corrupted. As I say, it think it was corrupted and corruptable from its false foundation false start.

To whence we should return: to the presentational immediacy of actualised experience.

Peter Underwood
Peter Underwood
Mar 16, 2019 10:28 AM

I have a certain degree of empathy for Israel in it’s dicy existence surrounded by declared enermies. They need all the support they can get if they are to survive usurping the land of the Palestians – engineered of course by good old Great Britain in its dying years.

So what to do? Certainly the apartheid nature of the Israeli government precludes it from international support on humanitarian grounds alone, just as the world vilified the South African regime. But this wouldn’t offer a similar solution this time. America and the West need Israel to prosper if they are to maintain their influence in the middle east so we are left with a conundrum. I favour two states, one for Israel and one for Palestine, but is there enough land area within the borders? Clearly coexistence doesn’t work as witnessed by the latest Gaza episode.

“Intractable” is a good word for this impossible situation. It is not acceptable to claim ownership of land going back to records 3000+ years old. On this basis most of the modern world would revert to city states. I could claim that Great Britain is really owned by the Celts (whoever they might be)!

Commonsense must prevail in accepting the status quo and finding a compromise of gargantan proportions if this nest of hostility is to be quenched. None of this of course justifies the actions of AIPAC within its nuturing state but it can’t be denied that the Jews have deep tentacles into the deep state and global financial infrastructure. They can and do influence events far beyong their stature.

My book covers some of these issues and a free pdf is available on request to: [email protected] OR
havea look at the updates on my website: https://www.gofundme.com/fnahvp-free-book

Helmut Taylor
Helmut Taylor
Mar 16, 2019 10:55 AM

Eddie the First of England banned yer Jews from England in 1290; Philip the Fair banned the Jew from France in 1306; Shakespeare profiles the Jewish persona in the character of Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice”. AndJesus threw’em arta der Temple….is all this recorded, historical fact? And me’n Roger Waters cry……

Helmut Taylor
Helmut Taylor
Mar 16, 2019 8:03 AM

King Edward 1 banned (i.e. had expelled) all Jews from England in 1290.
Will Shakespeare profiled the Jew in the persona of Shylock, in “The Merchant of Venice” in 1590.
What does this tell us?
And what has all this to do with Pink Floyd, he asks?

Antonym
Antonym
Mar 16, 2019 7:50 AM

Newcomer to the US House of Representatives, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Mn) represents District 60B, which includes part of northeast Minneapolis – with a big Somali presence.

Contrast her to another ex-Somali woman who made it to representative (in the Netherlands), Ayaan Hirsi Ali and left to the US mostly for safety from Holland!

While IIhan defends Islam’s incompatibility with Western culture, Ayaan criticizes her old Muslim culture.

Who gets most Western MSM support? IIhan of course, as Arab oil money potential and dollar support is much bigger than a few handfuls of Shekels. Islamic misogyny, anti gayness or freedom of speech be damned, the oily dollar rules.

bevin
bevin
Mar 16, 2019 12:48 PM
Reply to  Antonym

“Who gets most Western MSM support?”
Are you kidding? Hirsi Ali has had vast amounts of support both from institutions and the media-she’s in Holland by choice. The only danger she faced in north America was that of being crushed by fans, autograph hunters and islamophobes asking for her to repeat her critiques of the faith she had, as she had every right to do, rejected.
How short the public memory is.

mark
mark
Mar 16, 2019 5:42 AM

Is AIPAC in breach of election law?
Of course it is, but so what?
The Chosen People are above all laws, national, international and anything others.
Laws don’t apply to them.
Just to the stupid goyim.
Like no US aid is supposed to go to any state with nuclear weapons in breach of the NPT.
So the Chosen People are in breach of this law as well and should receive no aid until they comply with the NPT.
But so what? Laws only apply to the stupid goyim.
Adelson just tells all the 30 shekel whores he has in his pocket to pretend not to notice and carry on paying all the hundreds of billions in tribute and giving all the free weapons to the Chosen People.
The NPT only applies to countries like Iran and DPRK.
You have to understand these double standards if you want to be a good little shabbos goy and get anywhere in Washington.
If you’re a good little Shabbos goy you’ll get a pat on the head and a few shekels and some junkets to Occupied Palestine.

Helmut Taylor
Helmut Taylor
Mar 16, 2019 7:47 AM
Reply to  mark

Oooooooooooooooh, yew are awful, Marky! Possibly a Pink Floyd fan an’all by all accounts! Well done, Cocker!

Fair dinkum
Fair dinkum
Mar 16, 2019 5:35 AM

As the empire implodes, more and more of its devious deeds and malfeasance will be exposed.
Sad that.

Paul
Paul
Mar 16, 2019 5:15 AM

Questioning the loyalty of Jews to their home countries is supposedly an “anti semitic trope”. Really? Well….when I see AIPAC directing money to US political candidates NOT on the basis of what these candidates can do for the citizens of their congressional districts or states, or even the USA itself, but on what these candidates can do for Israel, a foreign country, then I reckon I am entitled to question their loyalty. When I see the Australia Israel Jewish Affairs Council and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry pressuring the Australian government to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move that the Australian government’s diplomatic and military advisers have said is NOT in Australia’s interests, then I reckon I am entitled to question their loyalty. When I see young Jews serving in the Israeli army instead of the armies of their own countries, I reckon I am entitled to question their loyalty. When I see Labour Friends of Israel and the UK Board of Jewish Deputies trying to bring down Jeremy Corbyn for being insufficiently subservient to Israel, despite him nearly winning the previous general election and potentially bringing substantial benefits to a majority of UK citizens, I reckon I am entitled to question their loyalty.

Antonym
Antonym
Mar 16, 2019 7:55 AM
Reply to  Paul

“Questioning the loyalty of Jews to their home countries is supposedly an “anti semitic trope”. Really?
Countries? there is only one mini Israel. You probably got mixed up with the dozens of Islamic states dotting the globe so let me rephrase it for you: Questioning the loyalty of Muslims to their home countries is supposedly an “Islamophobic trope”. Really?

George Cornell
George Cornell
Mar 16, 2019 10:57 AM
Reply to  Antonym

Aren’t there more Jewish people in New York and Miami Beach than in Israel? Surely more in the US. I think the writer was using home countries in the sense of where their home might be.
And are you suggesting that there is a Muslim equivalent to AIPAC in terms of influence? And how many Congressman swear allegiance to Israel and how many are dual citizens of Israel? Versus all other Muslim countries. Do answer, as you are giving the impression that you do not wish to debate unless it gives you the opportunity to shout anti-semitism, which is wearing very thin, if you don’t mind me saying.

mark
mark
Mar 16, 2019 4:48 PM
Reply to  George Cornell

I wasn’t aware that teachers in America had to take loyalty oaths to Pakistan. I wasn’t aware that it was illegal to criticise Pakistan. I wasn’t aware that America was giving another $38 billion to Pakistan to add to all the hundreds of dollars of past tribute. I wasn’t aware that America was fighting one war after another for Pakistan whenever the President of Pakistan snaps his fingers.

Well I never, you learn something new every day.

Peter Underwood
Peter Underwood
Mar 16, 2019 5:27 PM
Reply to  mark

I wasn’t aware of any of this – what is your source please?

Helmut Taylor
Helmut Taylor
Mar 18, 2019 8:24 PM

Any suggestions as to why all Jewish nursery schools (kindergarten) in Deutschland have full-time (armed) police protection?

George Cornell
George Cornell
Mar 19, 2019 6:33 PM
Reply to  Helmut Taylor

Because it is necessary?

Helmut Taylor
Helmut Taylor
Mar 19, 2019 8:00 PM
Reply to  George Cornell

Hi George, nice of you to pick up on the subject. Yer ordinary, run-of-the-mill German won’t even drive at 33mph in a 30mph area. But it is also true, that nobody REALLY likes the Jews (same in England). And a tellolisti job is much more likely to happen to a Türk or Arab immigrant. Consider: there is a certain method to the madness of relentlessly sticking the figure “6 million” in the face of the children and grand children of the German wartime generation. One thing it does do, is to keep the Deutschers down; guilt ridden. And, as you know – being proud of your heritage is not only deemed to be racism, and, consequently, frowned upon here – in the land of the heirs to the Heilige Römische Reich Deutscher Nationen – but equally so (increasingly) in Blighty.
What interests me is: who is responsible for this “shift” in awareness.
Or am I barking up the wrong one?
Lemme know.

KarenEliot
KarenEliot
Mar 16, 2019 12:45 PM
Reply to  Antonym

Antonym You’re an idiot. Reference to home country self evidently refers to the country the person lives in. People of Jewish faith live in many countries and think of those countries as home. Hence the plural. these people are permitted to have divided loyalties, apparently, because Israel is so defenceless and vulnerable. No one else is permitted to do so because that is unpatriotic. Pointing to this dichotomy and calling it out as hypocrisy is not in any way anti Semitic even in the narrow sense that term has acquired.

Haltonbrat
Haltonbrat
Mar 17, 2019 2:26 PM
Reply to  Antonym

Well the UK did have the Tebbit cricket test for loyalty to country. How do Jews fair in the European Song Contest?

binra
binra
Mar 16, 2019 7:07 PM
Reply to  Paul

The spectre of genocide from ‘others’ is part of maintaining a Jewish identity. The state of Israel is only part of the ‘expression’ of a Jewish identity.

We can see that we all are manipulated by fear of calamity or enemies that may or may not have foundation and that false flags are associated with triggering compliance to supporting wars or crusading activism, or at least dis-incentivising open non-compliance. These are simply normal for war. And for many, war is simply normal – or held to be the nature of existence. As exemplified in Cloud Atlas; “there are those who are meat, and there are those who eat”. (It’s other theme is a recognition and alignment in transcendence or beauty).

The belief that one’s very existence is threatened becomes a basis for justifying an exceptionalism of not being accountable to others who are not in such a situation and ‘ought to be sympathetic, supportive and not aligned in the forces of destruction.

To what degree playing such a role is employed as a cover for expansion and consolidation of power – in sharp distinction to presentations or protestations of victimhood is debatable, for there are some who would prefer to roll back the Israel state – but is that in direct opposition to the WAY of its being rather than its establishment? There are innumerable arbitrarily defined states as a result of post colonial and post war impositions but they are not as contentious as the insertion of US and allied support for a European Jewish state within the Arab region – and in ways that operates the reconfiguration of the Middle East through various strategies that suggest a Greater Israel.

In all these geopolitical matters I don’t see those of Jewish descent being directly active EXCEPTING in being drawn into support or mitigated in any opposition as a ‘power supply’ – just as reactionary ‘populism’ was used to operate the Trump and brexit psyop.

The people are generally manipulated to take the pain and loss of what their ‘leaders’, institutional and corporate ‘services’ outsource to them as a pattern of predation by deceit. Is this exclusively Jewish? I don’t think so. Are there particular conditions to the Jewish patterns of leverage, influence or dominance? Yes – very few other situations have worked such a mind or thought control. But there are other arenas where those who question presumed reality learn that it is dangerous to their career, reputation and social status or inclusion in society – and perhaps their liberty or life.

However knowing that deceits are in play is better than being played by them – though it may seem easier to be ignorant – because identity is acted from rather than questioned.

Does Jewish influence ‘rule the world’ – including through its own setting up of captured oppositions? Or is that also a framework of deceit?

Questioning our reality is another term for deeper self-honesty. This is not a quality I associate with power-seeking – but it is a quality arising from withdrawing allegiance to the mind of such framing.

Not choosing to challenging a deceit, becomes accepting subjugation. But the first freedom is to reclaim our own by living it – rather than worshipping the same god of power in vengeance and sacrifice. I hold there are deeper lessons in the patterns of the human world than surface realities.

God and Satan wagered on Job – is it Job done for? Or is that within each human heart to answer when the mind is willing to listen nowhere else?