Leave it to a newspaper founded by Baron Black of Crossharbour,
aka Conrad Black the neocon, in its desire to diss Democrats,
to demonstrate there is absolutely no difference between Republicans
and Democrats.
“The Democratic-controlled Congress is moving to outflank
both the Bush administration and the United Nations with the toughest
set of sanctions against Iran that have ever been proposed,”
reports the New York Sun. Democrats in control of the corporate
and “special interest” whorehouse on the Potomac have
introduced “legislation to sanction foreign companies that
do business with Iran and to re-impose the import restrictions,”
just in time for the convergence of AIPAC, the Bwana of “special
interests,” that is to say hijacking government policy and
siphoning off billions of dollars to the outlaw state of Israel.
“The goal of the sanctions is to deny Tehran funding that
could be used to support terrorism and attacks on American troops
in Iraq or to build nuclear weapons or missiles,” fantasizes
Eli Lake. As we know, Iran is not building nuclear weapons, or
at least there is a complete lack of evidence of this—outside
the feverish imaginations of neocons far and wide—and there
is even less evidence Iran is attacking American soldiers in Iraq.
However, none of this matters, as the corporate media now reports
such as fact, thus making it fact in the minds of millions of
Americans, chumps who will be duped into attacking Iran, as that
is what AIPAC and the Israelis want.
Of course, as AIPAC convenes, our “representatives”
will be required to pay homage, that is if they wish to remain
“representatives.” “The activists who will be
pressing the new bill are coming to Washington for the annual
convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, where
the House speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat of California, is scheduled
to give her first major speech on Middle East policy as the House
leader. Both the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House
and Senate will make speeches at the event, which is also expected
to draw presidential candidates such as Senators Clinton, Obama,
Biden, and Brownback. Senator McCain is said to be likely to attend
as well.” In other words, one is not considered a presidential
candidate unless he or she kisses the pinky ring of AIPAC and
pledges loyalty to AIPAC and Israel.
“Yesterday, Aipac spokesman Josh Block said the lobbying
push this year has three priorities. To start, the group will
try support ‘continued U.S. aid to Israel that helps strengthen
American interest in the region by ensuring that our ally Israel
remain strong and secure in it’s tough neighborhood.’
That priority is important because the ten-year agreement signed
between President Clinton and Prime Minister Netanyahu that phased
out the economic assistance element of the $2.4 billion in annual
aid Israel receives as a condition of its peace accord with Egypt
is set to expire. Today Israeli and American diplomats are negotiating
new terms of how the American assistance will be spent.”
Of course, U.S. aid to Israel does anything but “strengthen
American interest in the region,” in fact it does quite
the opposite. As for Israel’s “tough” neighbors,
we can assume this is primarily a reference to Hezbollah, an organization
that would not exist if Israel had not invaded Lebanon on numerous
occasions. As any resident of southern Lebanon will tell you,
for every action there is a reaction, and Hezbollah was a reaction
to Israeli brutality.
“Mr. Block also said organization’s activists will
be urging lawmakers to withhold aid from ‘going to support
or legitimize a Palestinian Authority dominated by a terrorist
group, Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel, renounce violence
or abide by previous agreements with the Jewish State.’
That issue is particularly tricky for the Bush administration
today because the Palestinian Arab president, Mahmoud Abbas, is
currently in negotiations with Hamas, a State Department designated
foreign terrorist organization.”
Never mind this “terrorist group,” initially funded
and supported by the Israeli government, was elected by the Palestinians,
and as such it is quite natural for Mahmoud Abbas to negotiate
with them. Not that it matters, as it will be business as usual
in the world’s largest open-air prison—staggering
unemployment, malnutrition, and poverty will continue to grow
exponentially, as planned. It is “tricky” because
the United States still props up a crumbly facade, acting like
they actually envision a Palestinian homeland, when in fact this
“homeland” is such in the same way Bophuthatswana
was a “homeland,” actually a contrived Bantustan.
AIPAC and Israel would have the Bush administration do away with
this fanciful fig leaf altogether and get down to the business
of killing more Arabs.
It is interesting to witness to the go-around between mega-multinationals
such as Dutch Shell and the AIPAC neocons in Congress. “If
Dutch Shell moves forward with its proposed $10 billion deal with
Iran, it will be sanctioned. If Malaysia moves forward with a
similar deal, it too will be sanctioned. The same treatment will
be accorded to China and India should they finalize deals with
Iran,” Democrat Tom Lantos admonished. Lantos is of course
the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, or maybe
it should be renamed the AIPAC Committee on Foreign Affairs.
In addition to fronting the neocon agenda, the Bush administration
is all about the neoliberal side of the coin, that is to say allowing
corporations to do whatever the heck they want, including investing
in Iran, as “free trade” (as in the freedom to loot
and plunder) has no conscience, even when AIPAC comes a’calling.
“For Aipac to endorse the legislation this year could place
the bipartisan lobby on a collision course with a Bush administration
that has used earlier bills supported by Aipac to sanction Iranian
banks and front companies,” the New York Sun continues.
In other words, for the AIPAC plan to sanction Iran to work—sanction
is just another word for embargo, and once upon a time the act
of embargoing a country was considered a declaration of war—the
neolib bankers will need to take it on the chin, or rather in
the pocketbook.
Neolib influence over the Bush administration is obvious, as
undersecretary of State for political affairs, Nicholas Burns,
member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the fascist Order
of St. John, “said he supported the new sanctions in general,
but that administration would oppose the loss of waiver authority
because it would have the effect of forcing America to sanction
its allies,” in other words it is unacceptable to the neolibs,
as banks and multinational corporations are the only “allies”
that matter.
Finally, as a demonstration how long the AIPAC arm stretches,
consider, as PNACer Zalmay Khalilzad prepares to participate “in
a meeting of ambassadors and diplomats in Baghdad that will include
both Iran and Syria,” the prospect of “Interpol recommending
arrest warrants for former Iranian officials in connection with
the bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Argentina.” Israel
blames Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran for the bombing, naturally depending
on the direction of the political wind, while others, including
the Argentinian Norberto Ceresole, blamed Shin Beth.
