Who’s afraid of “the Israel lobby”?
President Obama was reelected for many reasons, but skepticism/hostility to Israel was not one of them. To the extent that the Hagel nomination expressed the president’s exasperation with Benjamin Netanyahu or a determination to downgrade the long and close U.S.-Israel relationship — well, to that extent the nomination was a peevish mistake. Hagel right now is paying the price of that mistake by his disavowal of, and apology for, a decade of poorly considered remarks…
Hagel inserted himself into a small bubble of people who have talked themselves into an ever more radical critique of Israel and American Jewry. Isolated inside that bubble, he lost sight of the real state of American politics. The “Israel Lobby” is powerful in U.S. politics for exactly the same reason that Mothers Against Drunk Driving is powerful: because the American majority supports motherhood and disapproves of drunk driving.
Blowback
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I mean hey, Antifederalist, why should those pesky jooos have minded being second-class citizens in their own countries?
They weren’t charcoal bricquets, so what complaint could they have had?
JFKY on February 2, 2013 at 8:24 PM
Perhaps, it was the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. After that, everyone wanted their own country and wanted to be able to decide who was going to live there. No one much cared about Jerusalem or “Palestine” during the Ottoman Empire because neither were important. WWI ended the Ottoman Empire and millions of Arabs had the ability for the first time to envision their own nations.
Resist We Much on February 2, 2013 at 8:24 PM
antifederalist on February 2, 2013 at 8:27 PM
Those pesky, collectivist Joos, they deserve what they get, if you ask me (anti)….
Sure soon after those pushy Joos get theirs in the Middle East, the Muslims will just turn on the rest of us….but that’s for the future.
JFKY on February 2, 2013 at 8:35 PM
That’s very logical. I’m sure there were many factors behind the Jewish expulsion.
antifederalist on February 2, 2013 at 8:36 PM
I mean can anyone ever find a case where the failure to stand up to tyranny in the last 100 years or so has led to larger problems? I mean beyond the sell-out of Ethiopia, Czechoslovakia and China…I mean and what the cost, not much more than 60 million dead people, and the vast majority of THEM were hook-nosed, or yellow-skinned foreigners…not good, honest Ronulans, I mean ‘Mehrikuns.
JFKY on February 2, 2013 at 8:37 PM
But mostly just Arab antisemitism….
JFKY on February 2, 2013 at 8:38 PM
So do union members, so?
thebrokenrattle on February 2, 2013 at 8:40 PM
If Obama isn’t afraid of it, at the bare minimum he’s a paper tiger and they darn well know it. All the power of his office notwithstanding, he’s nothing more than a petulant child who’s the living incarnation of the Peter Principle.
I would not at all be surprised if for all his bluff and blabbering, the Israeli nickname for our POTUS translates to “carpet”.
MelonCollie on February 2, 2013 at 11:18 PM
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