HIzzonor at AIPAC

from mondoweiss.org
Jan 25, 2014 03:27 pm | Richard Congress


I think Phil’s comment on DeBlasio’s abject groveling before AIPAC lets the mayor off the hook. It seems to say: “Well kissing Israel’s ass is par for the course in American politics, so this no surprise.”

For otherwise liberal New York City Democrats to support Israel’s policies and avoid the wrath of the lobby has been the norm. But de Blasio should be slammed hard (and picketed) for his remarks.
As a supposed liberal, he went way overboard talking like a right wing Likudnik idiot, lavishing praise on everything about wonderful, poor little besieged Israel. Why didn’t he at least take a more critical J Street sort of line, supporting two states and level some criticism about the occupation hurting Israel? Maybe he actually believes the right-wing load of crap he said to AIPAC?

When he said he would defend Israel in Washington, is he signing on with the “lets bomb Iran and/or have Netanyahu tell us when to go to war for Israel’s interests?” gang. Has he turned against Obama, who is resisting the lobby’s bill to torpedo any agreement between the US and Iran?

There are new openings for so-called liberal Democrats to quit living in fear of AIPAC and start to stand up for everyone’s (even Palestinians?) human rights. Why doesn’t Mr. pro-Sandinista revolution have the guts to take even a small progressive step?

Do the voters who put him in office agree with his Israel Uber Alles rant?

It’s time to put these “liberals’” feet to the fire. Support for Israeli arrogance and atrocities is declining.

A last thing: PEP (progressive except for Palestine) is, in fact, a slippery slope. The anti-Palestinian, pro-Settler State positions of these Progressives leads them to become NOT progressive on other issues. Sticking with Israel leads them into supporting other “pro-Israel” policies: demonizing Iran, an unlimited supply of US taxpayer’s money to Israel’s military (including under the table funds for illegal settlements), supporting the fraudulent war on terror–meaning NSA spying, drone attacks, and other aspects of U.S. Imperialism and a permanent warfare state…to name a few.

NOTE

[This post from mondoweiss was submitted by me to the comments section to an article by Phil Weiss on DeBlasio's vomitorious ravings at a supposedly secret talk he gave to an AIPAC (aka "the lobby," or the House and Senate's puppetmaster) meeting. So it begins without describing the contents of DeBlasio's talk.

Not that there was much content to Mayor Bill's remarks. He fawned over AIPAC and Israel pledging to do everything and anything to help America's greatest ally. Especially egregious was his declaration that the job description of Mayor of New York City was to love, coddle, swoon over and support Israel uncritically. I guess this precludes clearing the streets of ice and snow.
When I was in Jerusalem in December there was a freak snowstorm that paralyzed the city and other parts of Occupied Palestine. Maybe DeBlasio thought that this was a godly event that linked the NYC and Israel.

While bloviating about the many shared experiences and policies of Israel and New York City, he left out a few apt similarities. Israel has troops maintaining checkpoints who harass, intimidate, arrest and sometimes kill Palestinians, both citizens and West Bankers (who live under martial law), he forgot to praise the NYPD for its very Israeli activities of Stop and Frisk, random arrests, and occasional murder of unarmed black youth. From his AIPAC remarks you'd think he'd what to keep Ray Kelly as police chief. The New York City tradition of aiding real estate speculators and landlords drive low-income people out of their homes in select neighborhoods is in the grand tradition of Israeli housing demolitions and ethnic cleansing--just that the ethnics who get cleansed in our fair city are usually black and latin, rather than Palestinians.]