Israel Lobby asks Congress to Approve Attack on Iran & to Exempt Israel from Sequester<http://www.juancole.com/2013/03/congress-approve-sequester.html>
Posted on 03/04/2013 by Juan News from what Ross Perot used to call the guys in sharkskin suits and alligator shoes the lobbyists who routinely outvote you and me on Capitol Hill: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which ought to be a registered foreign agent, opens its annual conference in Washington today. Its three big goals right now are to make sure US government aid to Israel is exempted from the across the board budget cuts of the sequester; to make sure Israel can with impunity go on stealing Palestinian land in the West Bank; and to get permission from Congress for the Israeli Air Force to bomb Irans civilian nuclear enrichment facilities. Since Israel is a middle-income country with a nominal per capita income higher than Spain or South Korea, it is mysterious why the US taxpayer should outright give it so much money every year more especially since the Israelis are breaking international law with their aggressive colonization of the West Bank, which causes no end of trouble for the United States in the Muslim World. Why it should be exempted from the effects of the sequester, when ordinary Americans will not<http://rt.com/op-edge/aipac-israel-aid-us-761/>, is further mysterious. But the maneuvering around the sequester and aid is a minor issue compared to the attempt to do an end run around President Obama and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel by getting senators to sign a permission slip for Israel<http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/sites/default/files/AIPAC_Back_Door_To_War.pdf> to attack Iran, saying that the senate: urges that, if the Government of Israel is 3 compelled to take military action in self-defense, the 4 United States Government should stand with Israel 5 and provide diplomatic, military, and economic support to the Government of Israel in its defense of its territory, people, and existence. Although the resolution denies being an authorization for war, that is clearly what it is. It was introduced by Lindsey Graham (of course) and Robert Menendez. The resolution also seeks to expand Americas unilateral war on the Iranian economy<http://www.niacouncil.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=9029&security=1&news_iv_ctrl=-1>, which is arguably illegal in international law, by trying to punish European companies, including pharmaceuticals, that sell to Iran. The US financial blockade is already making some medicines hard to come by for strapped Iranian families with ill children. An Israeli attack on Iran would certainly draw in the United States. Thousands of US personnel in Baghdad, Qatar and Bahrain would be vulnerable to covert, proxy attacks in response. The Pentagon has repeatedly warned the Israelis about doing anything that might force the US into hostilities, and the brass wont be happy about this irresponsible resolution. Former National Security Council staffer and Columbia professor of Political Science Gary Sick notes<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/28/senators-press-to-green-light-israeli-attack-on-iran.html>, Initiating a war is the gravest step any nation can take. This legislation would effectively entrust that decision to a regional state. Such a decision is an American sovereign responsibility. It cannot be outsourced. Just Foreign Policy<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1439/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=12660> has suggestions for how you can protest this irresponsible resolution to your elected representatives. http://www.juancole.com/2013/03/congress-approve-sequester.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+juancole%2Fymbn+%28Informed+Comment%29 By Noam Sheizaf <http://972mag.com/author/noams/> |Published March 4, 2013Dennis Ross: Netanyahu's attorney in Washington *Dennis Ross presents a framework for renewing the peace process, which he apparently lifted directly from the Israeli PMs hard disk including **de facto**recognition of permanent Israeli control over eight percent of the West Bank. * <http://972mag.com/netanyahus-attorney-in-washington/67052/800px-dennis_ross/> Allowing free hand to the Israeli leadership. Dennis Ross (Nrbelex/ CC-BY 2.5) Veteran U.S. diplomat Dennis Ross had a full page op-ed in *The New York Times*<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/03/03/opinion/sunday/opinion-israel-palestine-mideast-peace.html?ref=global> this weekend, in which he presents a 14-step program that is supposed to establish a framework for renewing the diplomatic process. The piece includes a lot of talk about peace, but the action items are lifted from Netanyahus policy book, demonstrating again why the Palestinians were right when they refused to meet Ross the man is the informal Israeli ambassador to Washington. Only that in the past, his positions were closer to those of the Israeli center (Kadima/Labor); today he is teaming up with the Right. Ross juxtaposes a list of demands from each side which are in fact directed only at the Palestinians. They are to publicly recognize Israels connection to Jerusalem despite the fact that it is the Israeli government which refuses to acknowledge Palestinians claims to the city, not vice versa. They need to include Israel in their maps Ross knows all too well that since 2009 it has been the Israeli side that refused to open maps in the talks. And so on. >From Israel, Ross demands it stop construction of settlements beyond the separation barrier, but he accepts and even explicitly supports building projects west of it, in an area consisting of 8 percent of the West Bank. This is perhaps the most astonishing point in the article, because it: (a) encourages Israeli construction in the occupied West Bank something the entire international community, including all American administrations, have refused to do; (b) it accepts Israels interpretation of the notion of settlement blocs, including the Ariel and Kadumim fingers, which cut through the northern West Bank, and; (c) it sees the security barrier Israel unilaterally constructed on Palestinian land (and not on the internationally recognized 1949 armistice lines) as the future borders of the Palestinian State. Thus, Ross is echoing Binaymin Netanyahus refusal to see the 1967 border as the starting point for any negotiations. It is worth noting that annexing 8 percent of the West Bank to Israel means dropping the idea of equal land swaps, because Israel wont be able to come up with more than 3-4 percent of land west of the Green Line with which to compensate the Palestinians for the annexed settlement blocs. In short, Ross plan puts the entire burden on the Palestinians, and accepts the Israeli leaderships preconditions, including an unprecedented recognition of most of the settlements *before negotiations even began*. The idea that the Israeli leadership should get whatever it wants (in order to accommodate Israelis various anxieties, justified or not) and that as a result, it should understand that the occupation needs to come to an end is so bizarre and so disconnected from the realities of political behavior that its difficult to believe it has been the corner stone of American diplomacy for the last couple of decades. Left alone, Israeli leaders choose the easy way of accepting the status quo. Ross has left the administration but his ideas are still popular in Washington<http://972mag.com/us-top-envoy-leaving-and-so-should-his-politics/27458/>. This is not because they have any chance of working by now, its clear that he is one of the least successful diplomats ever to work for an American administration but because they create the comfortable illusion that its possible to achieve peace without confronting the Israeli government and its powerful allies in D.C., something nobody really wants to do. Instead, he suggests redrafting American policy according to the new desires of the Israeli politicians, while applying the real pressure on the Palestinian side (acting as Israels attorney<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/22/AR2005052200883.html>, as Aaron David Miller, another American negotiator, has called this approach). If adopted again by the administration, this short-sighted and dangerous policy is only likely to bring more suffering on Palestinians (and consequently on Israelis), and further diminish whatever American credibility is left in the region. http://972mag.com/netanyahus-attorney-in-washington/67052/ *Related:* US top envoy leaving, and so should his politics<http://972mag.com/us-top-envoy-leaving-and-so-should-his-politics/27458/> Haaretzs pundit takes on US envoy Ross for aiding Netanyahu<http://972mag.com/haaretzs-pundit-takes-on-us-envoy-dennis-ross-for-aiding-netanyahu/17951/> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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