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I swear Howard Kohr, Aipac’s executive director, must’ve been briefing John McCain for the presidential debate tonight. The candidate seemed to be channeling Aipac talking points about the impending Holocaust Iran plans for the State of Israel. Actually, Aipac doesn’t need Kohr in the room since it already has neocon ideologue Randy Scheunemann, the Republican’s foreign policy advisor.
If you read the following passage, it might remind you of Milli Vanilli lip synching that hit song from way back when. That’s how closely McCain is reading from the Aipac script:
My reading of the threat from Iran is that if Iran acquires nuclear weapons, it is an existential threat to the State of Israel and to other countries in the region because the other countries in the region will feel compelling requirement to acquire nuclear weapons as well. Now we cannot a second Holocaust. Let’s just make that very clear.
“Existential threat to the State of Israel?” Check.
“Second Holocaust?” Double check. He’s following those talking points right down the line. Good boy, John. They’ll be some checks in the mail to you come Monday.
The only problem with this little nugget of “wisdom” is that one Middle East state ALREADY HAS nuclear weapons. Israel’s nuclear weapons cache has motivated other nations in the region like Pakistan and yes, Iran, and perhaps even Syria to feel the compulsion to have them. So if Iran got such weapons it wouldn’t be as if it were the first state to have them.
Here’s another talking point covered:
Senator Obama…said…he would sit down with Ahmadinejad, Chavez and Raul Castro without precondition. Without precondition. Here is Ahmadinenene (ph), Ahmadinejad, who is, Ahmadinejad, who is now in New York, talking about the extermination of the State of Israel, of wiping Israel off the map, and we’re going to sit down, without precondition, across the table, to legitimize and give a propaganda platform to a person that is espousing the extermination of the state of Israel, and therefore then giving them more credence in the world arena…
“Wiping Israel off the face of the map?” Triple check.
Problem is Ahmedinehad didn’t talk about exterminating Israel in New York or anywhere else. Does the Iranian president hate Israel? No doubt. Is the feeling mutual among Israeli leaders? You bet. But has Ahmadinejad ever said Iran would attack Israel? Has he ever threatened to use nuclear weapons or any weapons to destroy Israel? No.
Another ironic element to all this is that no less a Republican eminence gris than Henry Kissinger has advocated precisely this position–unconditional talks with Iran “at the highest level.” Isn’t it amazing to have Kissinger and Obama agreeing on something?
McCain of course tried vainly to claim that because he’d known Kissinger for 35 years, the old man could have said no such thing. But those of us who follow such stories know that’s precisely what the former secretary of state DID say only last week. Even odder, was Kissinger’s statement following the debate that said McCain had it right. It’s as if these two old geezers can’t remember what they said just yesterday.
I think it’s a goddamn shame that John McCain is clearly campaigning for the votes of elderly Florida Jews through this pandering to their worst fears about an impending Holocaust. He knows Jews of a certain age will respond like Pavlov’s dog if they hear such language used in a context that invokes questions of Jewish survival. I don’t blame Jews for having this reaction. A people who has suffered the traumas that ours has is bound to have similar reactions.
But I do blame otherwise intelligent politicians who deliberately stoke the fears of such people in pandering for votes in the provinces.
I am sorry to say that my own mother is a perfect example of this. She lives in Florida and won’t vote for Obama. For some strange reason she doesn’t seem to trust a black man to be president. And this is a woman who has voted for Democrats her entire life.
Don’t get me wrong. While I think my mother represents a trend within our community, I’m hoping that this trend will be rejected by the vast majority of the rest of us. Racialism and provoking fears of Israel’s destruction should have no place in U.S. politics or in American Jewish community. It’s my hope that whatever trend my mother represents, the rest of us will repudiate it and her (attitude) on November 4th. We need to hold out hope for a brighter future for ourselves and the State of Israel. A future of negotiation, peace and security.
Tags: Barack Obama, holocaust, iran-attack
@Mazal: I am glad to hear that you do not believe in attacking Iran. Yr view is very sensible.
But you are wrong about Israel’s leaders. Olmert asked Bush for a green light to bomb Iran. Other senior cabinet members have openly advocated bombing Iran. The stories are covered right here in this blog so do a search and you’ll find them.
I’m not saying that Khameini’s comments about Israel should be “disregarded.” I’m as disturbed about them as you are. But I don’t believe they mean that Iran will attack Israel directly nor do I think they mean that Israel is in any greater danger than it already faces from its current foes (Palestinian militants, etc.).
Olmert asked Bush for a green light to bomb Iran.
Excuse me, but this is not a threat. If there is a green light, it means there is agreement on an issue.
There is a media war, that is without a doubt correct. Assuming that every statement that Ahmadinejad makes in a passive voice, and therefore innocent of reproach, and non-threating is also nonsense.
Today’s news:
In an interview published Sunday in the United Arab Emirates-based al-Ittihad newspaper, the Hizbullah member said his organization was on the alert. He referred to Israel as “a cardboard country which will be destroyed by the resistance fighters, who achieved the grand victory against the entity robbing Palestine’s land in the years 2000 and 2006.”
He added that his organization dose [sic] not believe Israel will launch an attack against Lebanon. “Israel is frustrated by many internal problems and is incapable of launching a new war against Lebanon,” he said.
He went on to say that Major-General Eisenkot’s remarks were a “media war.”
The senior Hizbullah member repeated remarks made by his leader, Hassan Nasrallah, that whether Israel send five or eight divisions to Lebanon – they will all be destroyed.
Eisenkot told Yedioth Ahronoth that the next war, if and when it breaks out, must be determined fast, forcefully, and without being concerned about the global public opinion
Both are making non-threats, as they are using the passive voice. Nothing is threatened here, am I correct in assuming that that would be your interpretation?
The reference for the above quote is this:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3605259,00.html
@Mazal: Israel was prepared to bomb Iran. It needed U.S. approval in order to fly over Iraq. If it hadn’t needed U.S. approval it would have bombed Iran by now.
Again, I never said that Ahmadinejad statements were “innocent of reproach” [sic]. They are certainly worth of reproach. But do they represent anything more than the rabid rants of leaders boasting of their hate and destructive capacity (of which Israeli leaders have done more than their share as well?).
Eisenkot’s rhetoric is equally pathetic or moreso than Nasrallah’s since everyone knows that Israel cannot win the next war it fights with Hezbollah any more than it won the last one. Perhaps it cannot lose the war either in the sense that Israel’s existence will never be in jeopardy. But gone are the days when Israel can “win” any war except perhaps one in which it uses nuclear weapons. And we don’t want to go there…
Israei leaders have responded. Olmert was a little too heated in his response, it is true. Yet it was the Iranian leaders who were and are consistently, and with increasing levels of incitement and increasingly indicating their own actions (non passive voice) in the coming “destruction of Israel.” Of course Israel will respond.
There is a media war, and clear intentions are given, just as Hitler stated his opinions and goals prior to the attempt to eliminate the Jews of Europe. No one really heeded that warning either.
You take Hizbollah’s side in every argument, and also sound like you are anti-Israel.
@Mazal:
That’s bullcrap. Look, you’ve called me a “goon” at one of the sleaziest militantly pro-Israel site around. Lie about me again & call me “anti-Israel” & I’ll be happy to remove yr comment privileges. Maybe the RJC can get away with that sort of crap against Barack Obama, but you won’t here.
fiddler said:
Mazal:
Your own quotes from Ahmadinejad, “collapse of the Zionist regime” and “deliverance from Zionists” put the “collapse of Israel” nicely in perspectve, don’t they? IOW, the Iranians are calling for regime change in Israel, not for “wiping it off the map”, “driving the Jews into the sea”, a “second holocaust”, or whatever. That’s basically the same position that Israel has on Iran, and it’s Israel and the US, not Iran, that has the incomparably bigger guns.
I disagree with your view that Israel wants to “wipe Iran off the map” or see it “disappear from the annals of history”. Israel wants a peaceful relationship with its neighbors. There is no equation of equality between the words of Ahmadinejad and that of Israeli officials, because Israel would be defending itself from attack, even as Israel is defending itself in their media war, and the verbal attacks. Just think, who started the war of words? Who is claiming knowledge of Israel’s imminent doom?
@silverstein:
That’s bullcrap. Look, you’ve called me a “goon” at one of the sleaziest militantly pro-Israel site around. Lie about me again & call me “anti-Israel” & I’ll be happy to remove yr comment privileges. Maybe the RJC can get away with that sort of crap against Barack Obama, but you won’t here.
What have I said against Obama? I am in full support of Obama’s campaign for the US presidency. He defends Israel’s right to exist, and will continue the tradition of US support for Israel.
P.S. I’ve noted that you have a notorious antisemitic person helping you write yr posts.
@Mazal: I was likening the RJC’s smearing of Obama to your smearing of me by calling me anti-Israel.
No one “helps me write my posts.” There isn’t a single post written here by anyone other than me.
I’m about to pull the trigger on you but for some reason I won’t do it quite yet. You’re on probation. The next lie or smear from you & you’re history.