I’m really warming up to Joe Biden. I must confess that I wrote a dismissive blog post about his selection as Obama’s V.P. nominee. But that was then, this is now. Republicans, and apparently Aipac’s right-wing cohort has been carping about Biden’s alleged soft support for Israel. Which motivated a sharp riposte from the candidate. And I gotta tell you that after reading this I thought, “This guy’s got guts, kol hakavod lo (“more power to him”):
Biden dismissed the prominent role played by the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, saying the group “doesn’t speak for the entire Jewish community,” and it “doesn’t speak for the state of Israel, no matter what it insists on any occasion.”
The Delaware senator also attacked critics who have questioned his support of Israel saying, “I will take a back seat to no one, and again, no one in AIPAC or any other organization, in terms of questioning my support of the State of Israel.”
I think I can count on one hand the number of times a candidate for higher office has defended himself from such an attack by publicly fighting back and attacking Aipac by name. As I said, that takes guts. And I don’t think Joe Biden is foolish. He knows what he can and can’t get away with. He is confident enough in his record to warn Aipac that their supporters are mouthing nonsense and that he will take them to task by name if they persist. I think too he knows that Aipac no longer rules the roost in DC. They used to maintain their power with an iron fist. But I think that now there is more room to breath for candidates.
On a related note: The Nation has just published an in-depth profile of Israel at 60 by Eric Alterman in which he quotes Shlomo Avineri taking another swipe at Aipac:
AIPAC, Avineri adds, “is basically a right-wing lobby and a lobby for Likud–it is not a lobby ‘for Israel.’ After Oslo, it lobbied openly against an agreement signed by the Israeli government. Forgive me,” he adds, “I have a bias against someone who lives in New York and tells us not to give up ‘our’ land.”
AIPAC long ago became a complete caricature of itself; but it’s getting even worse.
Headline today, “Joe Lieberman Helping Palin with Foreign Policy.” Well, that’s hardly surprising, considering she obviously needs help with foreign policy and McCain is close with Lieberman; and as for AIPAC, it’s obligatory for any candidate. However, here is what is so bizarre: There has been much talk of Palin’s and her husband’s links to the Alaska Independence Party (AIP) and much has been made of the fact that AIP is officially a secessionist party. But at this point in history that is little more than a symbolic issue for them; it may sound bad, but it doesn’t go anywhere. What’s really important about the AIP, however, is that it is the official Alaska branch of the Constitution Party.
http://www.constitutionparty.com/view_states.php?state=AK
The Constitution Party is committed to a Dominionist future for America. That means not only does it not believe in the separation of church and state, but it is on the farthest fringes of the far right, supporting such things as slavery and stoning. For some time now, Dominionists, especially through the National Reform Association, headed by Howard Phillips — a converted Jew, incidentally, and one of the original founders of the Moral Majority — have been working to take over the Republican Party. I’m not saying that Palin is even aware of all this — she is a puppet. But the fact that she is on the ticket should be worrying to every decent American, and especially to Jews.
There’s so much to talk about in this connection, but I’ll stop here — just trying to give a pointer in the right direction.
Since it’s probably not a good idea to try to load this comment up with links, I’lll just give the titles of some articles online that you can google for further particulars.
Sarah Palin’s Party Loyalty (The Consortium Report)
New revelations re “stealth dominionist” Sarah Palin
(Daily Kos)
Not So Very Christian Conservatives (The Pink Flamingo)
Sarah Palin and Christian Dominionist Theocracy (Talk to Action)
R.J. Rushdoony (Racist Churches)
[Updated] Meet The REAL Mirror Opposite Of The Daily Kos (Daily Kos)
Operation Potomac (Bnet)
Phillips sets tone for strategy briefing (Skip Porteous)
Will McCain and Palin Meet Dobson Today?
AIPAC’s clout is probably mainly due to connections with the Religious Right, mostly Dispensationalist Protestants.