Obama and the Israel Lobby
JVL Introduction
In Barack Obama’s autobiography, as Peter Beinart explains, the former President gives the reader enough information to glimpse what Washington policymaking on Israel/Palestine is really like.
And it bears a remarkable resemblance to the picture Mearsheimer & Walt painted in 2006 in their book The Israel Lobby – roundly attacked at the time for its alleged antisemitism.
The real lesson, perhaps not stated clearly enough, is that Obama tried but failed to change American policy towards Israel because the domestic political cost was too high.
The only way to change that is for Palestinian activists to make the price of ignoring them even higher than the price of annoying the Israel lobby.
This article was originally published by Jewish Currents on Wed 25 Nov 2020. Read the original here.
Obama and the Israel Lobby
Loading article text…
This is from a Marjorie Cohen article on the Counterpunch website. What should be noted is the date – Sep 2016-a few months before he ended his second term of office. So the Israeli Lobby excuse becomes null and void in this time frame.
“President Barack Obama has agreed to give Israel a record $38 billion in military aid over the next 10 years, cementing his legacy as the strongest financial supporter of Israel ever to occupy the White House. Obama, whom Israeli journalist Gideon Levy calls “the patron of the occupation,” increased the amount of money the U.S. provides Israel each year from $3.1 to $3.8 billion.
Netanyahu, who described the increase in U.S. monetary aid as “unprecedented” and “historic,” characterized it as “the greatest accomplishment since sliced bread,” according to Aaron David Miller, vice president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “The bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable,” Obama declared on Sept. 21 as he shook hands on the deal with Netanyahu.”
I’ve just read four reviews of this book from the Guardian website. None of them mentions this.
Obama and Brown also saved the world and bailed out the banks, let’s see what happens in the next financial crash
The West was bankrupt before Covid19
The answer is legal, diplomatic, financial, cultural and democratic and if that doesn’t work, repeat until it does
And people say I exaggerate the power of the Israeli Lobby.
It isn’t only in the US that the Lobby is all powerful, it is so powerful in the UK, that it stopped a True Socialist Party, with a True Socialist Leader, who criticises Israel’s behaviour against the Palestinians from getting into power.