Politics: Time For A Better Way

The WahPoo tells us that Jewish liberals (and, hopefully, progressives, moderates, nonsectarians, democrats, independents, and anybody who has seen that the State of Israel is being used as a catspaw for American imperialist ambitions in the Middle-East to the detriment of the Jewish people) are forming a PAC to counter the influence of the far-right AIPAC lobbyists.

The hawks of AIPAC do not represent the Israeli people, who are far more interested in peace than in the continuing manipulation of American foreign policy with detrimental results for both Israeli and Palestinian peoples. They do not represent the American people, who are bankrolling their militarism to the tune of nearly $100 billion. They do not represent anyone except a small handful of wealthy, powerful, militaristic maniacs who stand to profit from the continuing murder and horror.

Gaza is a concentration camp, and the stain of that, the responsibility for that, lies with AIPAC and "Israel uber alles" hawks. What the Israeli military is doing to the Palestinians is equalled only by what Nazi Germany did to the Jews. What a shame and a disgrace to think that the sufferings of the Jewish people, that forced the whole world to examine its conscience, should now be played out by the State of Israel on the hapless and helpless Palestinians. Israeli and Palestinian women have worked together for years to persuade the state of Israel to abandon its function as a tool of American militarism, with small success.

The article states, in part:

The lobbying group will be known as J Street and the political action group as JStreetPAC. The executive director for both will be Jeremy Ben-Ami, a former domestic policy adviser in the Clinton White House.

"The definition of what it means to be pro-Israel has come to diverge from pursuing a peace settlement," said Alan Solomont, a prominent Democratic Party fundraiser involved in the initiative. In recent years, he said, "We have heard the voices of neocons, and right-of-center Jewish leaders and Christian evangelicals, and the mainstream views of the American Jewish community have not been heard."

One can only hope that all Jews with a conscience will join together to counter the militaristic approach that has shown such dismal results, and try to forge a new policy. Peace in the Middle East is long overdue. Israel cannot guarantee the survival of the Jewish people by continuing militarism. It's time for negotiations, diplomacy, and an understanding that there has to be a better way.

AIPAC is much richer and more powerful than the new organization can hope to be for some time, but they own too many of our politicians already. Their influence must be countered. Americans, Jewish and non, are beginning to resent the influence of the powerful Israeli lobby on American foreign policy and the American pocketbook. So be prepared, folks. AIPAC will fight back, and they already own many of our politicians.

Even supporters said the new groups will be hard-pressed to match AIPAC's influence in Washington. AIPAC has more than 100,000 members, 18 offices around the country and an endowment of more than $100 million--dwarfing what organizers say will be a first-year budget for J Street of about $1.5 million.

AIPAC has cultivated alliances across the political aisle, especially in recent years with President Bush, who has worked hard to build good relations with leading Jewish groups. But AIPAC also works closely with congressional Democrats and the leading Democratic presidential candidates, and it sees itself as representing a broad cross section of Jews with an interest in fostering strong ties between Israel and the United States.

Those of us who have watched the demolition of Palestinian farms and homes, the violation of basic human rights, the murder of activists like Rachel Corrie with growing horror over the past few years, must work to show that America's &mdash and the world's &mdash commitment to Israel does not include violations of the human rights of non-Jews. Peace in the Middle East has been the stated goal of the world for our entire lifetime.

We are facing the death of our planet with all its peoples. Scarce water, rising temperatures, crop failures, epidemics, pollution. If the human race, in millions of years of evolution, cannot find a way to work together in peace, we will all die, and sooner than we want to, or think likely. It is time to join forces and work for all.

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