And the winner is … the Israel lobby

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By Pepe Escobar

logo-aipac.jpg They’re all here - and they’re all ready to party. The three United States presidential candidates - John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Madam House speaker Nancy Pelosi. Most US senators and virtually half of the US Congress. Vice President Dick Cheney’s wife, Lynne. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. And a host of Jewish and non-Jewish political and academic heavy-hitters among the 7,000 participants.

Such star power wattage, a Washington version of the Oscars, is the stock in trade of AIPAC - the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the crucial player in what is generally known as the Israel lobby and which holds its annual Policy Conference this week in Washington at which most of the heavyweights will deliver lectures.

Few books in recent years have been as explosive or controversial as The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, written by Stephen Walt from Harvard University and John Mearsheimer from the University of Chicago, published in 2007. In it, professors Walt and Mearsheimer argued the case of the Israeli lobby not as “a cabal or conspiracy that ‘controls’ US foreign policy”, but as an extremely powerful interest group made up of Jews and non-Jews, a “loose coalition of individuals and organizations tirelessly working to move US foreign policy in Israel’s direction”.

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My country, ’tis of shams

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All of a sudden Maulana Fazl ur-Rahman that unabashed political acrobat, a man who somersaults in the name of God and on whom one can spot thick folds of lard even from a distance but nary a spine from up close, has started to appear most angelic by comparison

By Anwaar Hussain

pk1.jpg What a country my country has become. Let us start from the very top.

It is a country where an Army Chief can take over the country, hold its constitution in abeyance, suspend the basic rights of its citizens, beat up and imprison at will an enlightened section of its society, have a sitting Chief Justice of Supreme Court manhandled by lowly cops then fire him from his job, sack dozens of other judges who refuse to play to his tunes, shut down all private television channels daring to show his truth to the nation, compete in bogus elections and address public rallies in full uniform, hobnob with the vilest of the vile politicians to prolong his rule, appoint high school qualified military generals as Vice Chancellors of universities, sacrifice hundreds of his soldiers in the wild goose chase of Kargil, ‘disappear’ scores of Pakistanis in the phony ‘war on terror’, wilt like candle wax on a single phone call from Colin Powell despite commanding a nuclear armed 8th largest army in the world, admit to selling scores of his countrymen to other countries for bounties, claim tongue in cheek that none can undo what he has done and rather than having to pay for his crimes, goes on not only to become the President of Pakistan but also cling to that appointment for dear life.

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An Immodest Proposal: Sink your teeth into this….

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By Jason Miller

mt2.jpg Let’s face it, my fellow freedom and burger loving Americans. It is becoming painfully obvious that our non-negotiable American Way of Life is increasingly under attack. Yet while our meat consumption may be a wedge issue our foes are using against us, it can also be our salvation.

We are facing swarms of terrorists in the Animal Liberation Front, mobs of fanatical extremists at PETA, and hordes of Nazi-like, in-your-face vegans and vegetarians. Like deranged street prophets, they spout all kinds of nonsense about speciesism, the suffering of sentient beings, animal rights, compassion for livestock in factory farms, and other deluded ramblings.

Though we recognize their ridiculous utterances, beliefs, and acts to be those of mentally unbalanced losers who need a ridiculous cause in their miserable lives to prevent them doing the world a favor by committing suicide, how long can we afford to ignore these violent and dangerous individuals? Their numbers are growing way too rapidly for my comfort.

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TS Picks

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1. Obama’s Victory? How Big? How Far? : Immanuel Wallerstein, Agence Global

2. US Concentration Camps? Where? : George Monbiot, The Guardian

3. From Indonesia to the US, governments stand powerless in face of markets : David Blair, The Frost Blog

4. The Greatest Story Never Told : Tom Engelhardt, The Baltimore Chronicle

5. American President Pleads Guilty to Hopeless Idealism : Maureen Dowd, The NYT



TS Picks

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1. Haunted by Spirits : An Introduction to John McCain

2. A Neocon Curtain Call : Rami G. Khouri, Agence Global

3. The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination : J.K. Rowling’s commencement address given at Harvard

4. Interrogation for Profit : NYT Editorial

5. Obama’s Victory? How Big? How Far? : Immanuel Wallerstein, Agence Global

6. Blackwater’s Private Spies : Jeremy Scahill, The Nation

7. BBC uncovers lost Iraqi billions : BBC News



No, I Can’t!

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By Uri Avnery

israhell.jpgAFTER MONTHS of a tough and bitter race, a merciless struggle, Barack Obama has defeated his formidable opponent, Hillary Clinton. He has wrought a miracle: for the first time in history a black person has become a credible candidate for the presidency of the most powerful country in the world.

And what was the first thing he did after his astounding victory? He ran to the conference of the Israel lobby, AIPAC, and made a speech that broke all records for obsequiousness and fawning.

That is shocking enough. Even more shocking is the fact that nobody was shocked.

IT WAS a triumphalist conference. Even this powerful organization had never seen anything like it. 7000 Jewish functionaries from all over the United States came together to accept the obeisance of the entire Washington elite, which came to kowtow at their feet. All the three presidential hopefuls made speeches, trying to outdo each other in flattery. 300 Senators and Members of Congress crowded the hallways. Everybody who wants to be elected or reelected to any office, indeed everybody who has any political ambitions at all, came to see and be seen.

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Anwaar’s articles appear simultaneously here at Truth Spring and at Soul Vibes in The Pakistan Tribune.


US loses its status as economic world power
DAVOS, Switzerland, 2008
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