More and more Jewish Voices opposing Israel-Promoted pre-emptive Attack on Iran

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

Israel’s new government has declared that it will not move ahead with the core issue of peace talks with the Palestinians until it sees progress in U.S. efforts to stop Iran’s suspected pursuit of a nuclear weapon. The emerging Israeli position, announced by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during his May visit to Washington, flies in the face of U.S. policy enunciated by both Republican and Democratic administrations.

"FOR SOME time, there has been a strenuous effort to prepare the way for a pre-emptive strike against Iran, either by the U.S. or by Israel with American acquiesence. Those promoting such a military assault are the same people who promoted war in Iraq by telling us that Saddam Hussain had weapons of mass destruction, was tied to al-Qaeda, and played a role in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Now, we are told that Iran represents an “existential” threat and that any nuclear program it pursues—however far from achieving a single nuclear weapon it may be—must be eliminated.

Despite the fact that the U.S. intelligence community has not yet concluded that Iran has even decided to develop a nuclear weapon, the calls for action are growing. Among the chorus are neo-conservatives, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Commentary magazine, the World Jewish Congress and a host of others.

A fund-raising letter from the World Jewish Congress declared that, “Iran poses the greatest danger to the Jewish people since the Nazis came to power in the 1930s.” According to AIPAC, “Today the threats to Israel have never been greater...Iran is speeding up its nuclear weapons program...Do your part to stop Iran’s rapidly accelerating nuclear weapons program...”

Norman Podhoretz, long-time editor of Commentary and author of the book World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism, argues that Iran poses an imminent threat. In an essay in Commentary, he depicted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran as a revolutionary, “like Hitler...whose objective is to overturn the going international system and replace it...with a new world order dominated by Iran...The plain and brutal truth is that if Iran is to be prevented from developing a nuclear arsenal, there is no alternative to the actual use of military force.”

AIPAC’s spring 2006 convention made Iran its special target and featured giant screens alternating clips of Adolf Hitler denouncing the Jews and Iranian President Ahmadinejad. The show ended with a fade-out to the post-Holocaust vow, "Never Again."

Addressing AIPAC’s May 2009 annual meeting in Washington, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) declared that, "Mr. Ahmadinejad dreams of finishing Hitler’s work and killing all the world’s Jews. Each day that passes brings him closer to possession of a nuclear bomb, the ultimate weapon. When we daily fret and wring our hands, but fail to do anything that will really stop him, how late are we then?"

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[marmar]

1. Excellent......We hear a lot about AIPAC and hardliners......

...... while forgetting that Jews are and always have been one of the most reliably liberal, progressive voting blocs in this country for time immemorial.

[grassfed]

2. David Horowitz is on Thom Hartmann right now flogging the famous

reliably liberal, progressive voting ethos you speak of. http://www.thomhartmann.com

:sarcasm:

[LeftishBrit]

4. Horowitz is in a minority among American Jews...

what about Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold, Barney Frank, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and loads of others?

One statistic that I remember is that in 2002, 12 or 13 per cent of American Senators were Jewish; but 22% of those who voted against the IWR were Jewish.

My own MP is ethnically Jewish but an atheist (yes, atheists can and do get elected to the British Parliament). He would be to the left of almost all members of the American Congress.

[Ken Burch]

6. Absolutely. One of the great scams of the post-World War II era

was the successful effort by people like Podhoretz, Kristol and later by Horowitz to imply that the represented "THE Jewish viewpoint" on anything.

It's thanks to heroes like Michael Lerner and Noam Chomsky that few people believe that nowadays.

[Ken Burch]

5. Indeed. And I love your progressive reclamation of the phrase

"From Time Immemorial", a phrase which was meant to signify the durability of a moral tradition, not a justification for conquest.

[LeftishBrit]

3. I am sure very many Jews and even Israelis are opposed to attacking Iran

Indeed, while Israelis are not prepared to *rule out* attacking Iran's nuclear facilities, most of them mainly want economic sanctions - not war.

I understand that there are over 40 Jewish members of the American Congress, and that Cantor is the *only* Republican among them.