If someone asked you what Aipac’s mission was you might say: lobbying for Israel; bringing politicians and journalists to Israel; promoting Israel’s interests in American society; strengthening Zionism among college students. But would you ever in your wildest dreams answer that one of Aipac’s missions was to side with Indian Hindu extremists in their holy war against Islam? I thought I knew about a lot about Aipac. But even I was bowled over when I read this from M.J. Rosenberg (he should know since he worked for the group for 10 years or more):
AIPAC actually works closely with Hindu religious parties in the Indian government to teach them how to lobby effectively on Kashmir and the rest of the Hindu nationalist agenda. In fact, the Israel lobby trained the Indians on how to lobby effectively.
This takes the chief Israel-lobby organization far afield from its supposed mandate to promote Israel’s interests in the U.S. How can you possibly argue that taking the side of Hindu nationalists in their fight against India’s Muslims and Pakistan is part of a pro-Israel agenda? Unless of course, the cause of Israel must now be yoked to any cause that slimes Muslims. Is that what Aipac’s neocon agenda has come down to? Jewish Jihad against Islam?
This 2002 Forward article fleshes out a lot of M.J.’s claim about the closeness of the Israel lobby to Hindus nationalists.
H/t to reader John Dickerson.
AIPAC IS BAD FOR DEMOCRACY!
Hmmmm in India there is and has been also a nationalistic Sikh independence movement with violent terrorism. Indira Gandhi was not murdered by Muslim terrorists, she was murdered by Sikh terrorists. Air India Flight 182 as bombed by Sikh terrorists. The present Indian PM, who is so much praised in the that naive AIPAC articled linked above, is a Sikh. Strange that AIPAC’s article does see “jihadist” terrorism as the only threat in India.
The Hindu nationalistic movement is not only targeting Muslims, also Christians and others have been targeted. India is “full of” different ethnic, religious and political groups. Not to mention the 150 million Muslims there. Indian politicians are crazy if they believe Israel and Jewish pro-Israeli pressure groups can teach them how to handle successfully the minorities. The Israeli solution in India would lead to an unseen catastrophe.
This extremely active promoting of religious war against Islam by Israeli and pro-Israeli “movements” surely hints that the old conspiracy theories are not completely groundless.
AIPAC and Israel have rather unfounded megalomaniac views of Israel’s importance. India gets 16.5 percent of its oil from Iran and Iran 40% of the refined oil consumed by Iran is imported from India. Iran’s trade with India crossed USD 13 billion in 2007, an 80% increase in trade volume within a year. Via third party countries like UAE this figure touches USD 30 billion. The trade between India and Israel was USD 4 billion. Israeli weapons do not keep Indian economy running and growing, Iranian and Arab oil and gas does.
Not really surprising. AIPAC and extremist Hindus were made for each other. Hindus get to see Israel do everything Hindus wish they could do to Muslims in India and in exchange AIPAC gets free Tech support for life.
If you remember the recent EDL protest in my hometown, Birmingham, that was covered here on Tikun Olam, a lot of Hindus supported the fascist EDL because they are anti-Muslim. Recently, the BNP (a fascist, white supremacist political party in the UK) were forced by the courts to amend their membership policies to allow ethnic minorities to join the party. The first minority member to join was a Sikh man who bears a grudge against all Muslims for the death of his father during the India/Pakistan war of separation. The appeal for him is that the BNP has jumped on the anti-Muslim bandwagon in a bid for increasing support through fear – B’nai Brith Canada’s recent ad being a prime example. And what better way to disguise your racist views than to conceal them behind a fear towards the biggest threat the world has ever faced in its entire history: Islam. All of these groups say they are against radical Islam, but “radical” is fast becoming a loose term.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bnp-signs-its-first-nonwhite-member-1824108.html
http://mondoweiss.net/images/npost.JPG
It looks as if Rosenberg was at AIPAC from 1982 to 1986, which wasn’t ten years.
http://www.israelpolicyforum.org/users/mj-rosenberg
You don’t get an “A” for reading comprehension. Yes, he edited the Near East Report from 1982-86 as the passage you link to says. But he had other jobs at Aipac as well. If you’d done a bit more research you would’ve found this:
I don’t personally know which specific yrs. he worked for Aipac. But I do know he worked there longer than 4 yrs & this passage confirms that. I’ll just wait for M.J. to confirm your ignorance & give us the correct info.
I was editor of Near East Report from 1982-1986. But for two years previous to that I was an unpaid intern there. So that is six years. And then, during my almost two decades on the Hill, I worked closely with them (faithfully executing their dictates to Congress).
So I’d say 10 is about right.
I have done an infinite number of al chets and ashamnus and other such prayers for forgiveness from God for ever having been associated with them. But the money was good and AIPAC led directly to a bunch of other good jobs (the best is my current one).
And I’m still close friends with Tom Dine who, although as The Nation noted, not as critical of the occupation as me, now totally rejects the AIPAC line.
Any I think ten years is pretty much right. I wish it was a lot less (although I do happily exploit the connection).
Thanks, M.J. No need to do any ashamnus. As you said, w/o yr Aipac background you might not have ended up w. the experiences & background enabling you to be as effective as you are at what you do now.
Israel Lobby Islamophobic incite in India goes well beyond AIPAC.
From [DePers] Moslims én Joden keren zich tegen Joodse PVV-fans:
Click on the India link above and look for Matthew Levitt and his friends.
RE: “AIPAC actually works closely with Hindu religious parties in the Indian government”
SEE: “Hardline Hindus target Indian TV station”, 11/20/09, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
(excerpts) MUMBAI (AFP) – Seven people were arrested in Mumbai on Friday after activists from a hardline Hindu regional political party ransacked a television station’s offices and beat up staff, police and the network said.
About 25 men breached security at the Network 18 group premises in Vikhroli, in the east of the city, breaking glass windows with dustbins, overturning chairs and attacking journalists and other staff…
…India’s Broadcast Editors’ Association described the incident as “an attack on freedom of expression” and “the handiwork of elements who want to undermine the role of pen, microphone and camera”.
“Such attacks go against the basic tenets of democracy and need to be condemned in the harshest possible terms,” it said in a statement.
ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091120/wl_sthasia_afp/indiamediatelevisionpoliticsreligionhindu
So what is AIPAC’s or Zionisms master plan? If Israel is all you’re after why target Islam? What are they trying to achieve?
Was Aipac involved in the recent dinner at the white house for the Indian prime minister?
More importantly, is Aipac involved in US intensifying relations with nuclear India.
And is Aipac’s goal the conquest of Iran by partnering India with Israel and US against Iran?
And those who are harping ” know your history:” The Iranian and the Indian people emerged from the same root, from the Scythian steppe, and shared linguistic and religio-cultural traditions for hundreds, perhaps thousands of very early years. Zoroaster influenced the religious/ethical foundations of the shared Indo-Aryan culture.
India is not the only country. Turkish secularists are also very close to the AIPAC.
I hate to see any US-based group meddling in other countries, and India is a good example of what can go horribly wrong. Any incitement of Hindus against Muslims outside Indian borders also heightens communal strife within India itself.
It can also lead to nuclear war. Fortunately, the horror of a terrorist attack on Mumbai did not push Pakistan and India to war, because both governments have matured a bit. In fact, their reaction was more measured than ours after 9/11.
India used to be mindlessly pro-Palestinian (as in, “no matter what they do, they have a right to do it”), in the hope that the Arab world would help reign in Pakistan. Now that Israel is a major arms supplier, India has become mindlessly pro-Israel. The Indian government does indeed have a Pakistan fixation (the reverse is also true), but the people normally described as “Hindu Nationalists” are in the BJP and similar “fronts” (coalitions of supposedly like-minded groups like the RSS and the nationalist movement out of Tamil Nadu, where I usually spend 5 weeks a year teaching journalists). BJP is in the minority now; the more moderate (but unfortunately just as corrupt) Congress Party governs.
BJP was favored by the Bush Administration (which was surprised when Congress regained power 5 years ago), and the Bushies meddled. As you might expect, the Indian body politic gets annoyed at this sort of thing. Thus the “success” of a lobbying organization such as AIPAC depends on whom the folks in India vote for… and those folks have far more immediate issues than fomenting Hindu/Muslim strife, although in a close election incitement to base instincts can sway enough votes to make a difference.
AIPAC would try to bring BJP back into power and would force Pakistan to spend more of its scarce military resources in a “hot” or “cold” faceoff against India rather than controlling Islamic radicals. Aside from the immorality, this is not in the best interests of India or of the US or of world peace.
Well said.
I think your all forgetting the proxy war that has been going on between Islam and Hinduism for centuries. War is inevitable when key resources are scarce and when key beliefs and systems are incompatible with other systems. For example, an orthodox Jew believes they are entitled to more land than they actually occupy as commanded from god. Where as the Muslims believe the world is Islam vs Infidels. I think its only natural for Israel and the United States to support a powerful modern India. The Pakistani government we support doesn’t have full control over their nation, and it’s not a modern republic. Islamists have more control in Pakistan than liberal media admits.
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