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=> Keith Weissman says American Jews are pushing war with Iran (not Iraq)

Keith Weissman says American Jews are pushing war with Iran (not Iraq)

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Keith Weissman says American Jewish community is pushing war with Iran (not Iraq) by Philip Weiss on June 15, 2011 Like 0 Retweet 1. http://mondoweiss.net/2011/06/keith-weissman-says-american-jewish-community-is-pushing-war-with-iran-not-iraq.html I know this is days old, I missed it. Keith Weissman formerly of AIPAC, talking to Robert Dreyfuss of the Nation, on PBS: "Now, for the first time, one of the two AIPAC officials, Keith Weissman, is speaking out. In a series of extended interviews with Tehran Bureau, Weissman tells his story. He's come forward, he says, because he's concerned that if a confrontation between the United States, Israel, and Iran leads to war, it will be a disaster -- one that Weissman fears will be blamed on the American Jews. .... "The reason why I want to tell this story now is, we may be going down a path, helped along by the American Jewish community, and maybe even Israel, that is going to be worse even than the one we're on now - some sort of military confrontation with Iran. That worries me. Because they will be able to blame [it] on the Jews, to a great extent," says Weissman, who worked at AIPAC from 1993 until 2005, much of that time as the group's deputy director of foreign policy. Though Weissman disagrees sharply with those who say that AIPAC played a critical role in pushing for the 2003 U.S. decision to invade Iraq, he believes a war with Iran -- which he says "would be the stupidest thing I ever heard of" -- might well be blamed on AIPAC's leaders and their constituents. "What the Jews' war will be is Iran," he says. "Not Iraq." I find this slightly irresponsible. I mean, it's a good thing, to stop a war on Iran. But it's defensive, inasmuch as the argument is, Jews qua Jews had nothing to do with the Iraq war, when plainly they did. As I argued just the other day. As Jonathan Franzen apparently says in his novel Freedom (the post above this). This ain't going away, Keith and Robert, this is something the Jewish community must come to terms with, the neoconservative complicity in the burning of Iraq as a means of improving Israel's security, and the liberal Jewish complicity of silence, not diming their neocon cousins out. .{ 10 comments… read them below or add one } Woody Tanaka June 15, 2011 at 10:22 am The trouble I have is that the concern seems to be where the blame for such a war will land, and not for the victims of said war. Log in to Reply . iamuglow June 15, 2011 at 10:45 am Totally. He is against it for purely strategic reasons. Log in to Reply . Kathleen June 15, 2011 at 10:24 am “one that Weissman fears will be blamed on the American Jews. .” and that would be where the blame should land. Log in to Reply . Kathleen June 15, 2011 at 10:31 am Right wing radical Jews absolutely piled on for the invasion of Iraq. Plenty of non Jews also. But no way to get around a disproportionate amount of radical Jews. Too much evidence to back up those claims link to newamericancentury.org The Honorable William J. Clinton President of the United States Washington, DC Dear Mr. President: We are writing you because we are convinced that current American policy toward Iraq is not succeeding, and that we may soon face a threat in the Middle East more serious than any we have known since the end of the Cold War. In your upcoming State of the Union Address, you have an opportunity to chart a clear and determined course for meeting this threat. We urge you to seize that opportunity, and to enunciate a new strategy that would secure the interests of the U.S. and our friends and allies around the world. That strategy should aim, above all, at the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime from power. We stand ready to offer our full support in this difficult but necessary endeavor. The policy of “containment” of Saddam Hussein has been steadily eroding over the past several months. As recent events have demonstrated, we can no longer depend on our partners in the Gulf War coalition to continue to uphold the sanctions or to punish Saddam when he blocks or evades UN inspections. Our ability to ensure that Saddam Hussein is not producing weapons of mass destruction, therefore, has substantially diminished. Even if full inspections were eventually to resume, which now seems highly unlikely, experience has shown that it is difficult if not impossible to monitor Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons production. The lengthy period during which the inspectors will have been unable to enter many Iraqi facilities has made it even less likely that they will be able to uncover all of Saddam’s secrets. As a result, in the not-too-distant future we will be unable to determine with any reasonable level of confidence whether Iraq does or does not possess such weapons. Such uncertainty will, by itself, have a seriously destabilizing effect on the entire Middle East. It hardly needs to be added that if Saddam does acquire the capability to deliver weapons of mass destruction, as he is almost certain to do if we continue along the present course, the safety of American troops in the region, of our friends and allies like Israel and the moderate Arab states, and a significant portion of the world’s supply of oil will all be put at hazard. As you have rightly declared, Mr. President, the security of the world in the first part of the 21st century will be determined largely by how we handle this threat. Given the magnitude of the threat, the current policy, which depends for its success upon the steadfastness of our coalition partners and upon the cooperation of Saddam Hussein, is dangerously inadequate. The only acceptable strategy is one that eliminates the possibility that Iraq will be able to use or threaten to use weapons of mass destruction. In the near term, this means a willingness to undertake military action as diplomacy is clearly failing. In the long term, it means removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from power. That now needs to become the aim of American foreign policy. We urge you to articulate this aim, and to turn your Administration’s attention to implementing a strategy for removing Saddam’s regime from power. This will require a full complement of diplomatic, political and military efforts. Although we are fully aware of the dangers and difficulties in implementing this policy, we believe the dangers of failing to do so are far greater. We believe the U.S. has the authority under existing UN resolutions to take the necessary steps, including military steps, to protect our vital interests in the Gulf. In any case, American policy cannot continue to be crippled by a misguided insistence on unanimity in the UN Security Council. We urge you to act decisively. If you act now to end the threat of weapons of mass destruction against the U.S. or its allies, you will be acting in the most fundamental national security interests of the country. If we accept a course of weakness and drift, we put our interests and our future at risk. Sincerely, Elliott Abrams Richard L. Armitage William J. Bennett Jeffrey Bergner John Bolton Paula Dobriansky Francis Fukuyama Robert Kagan Zalmay Khalilzad William Kristol Richard Perle Peter W. Rodman Donald Rumsfeld William Schneider, Jr. Vin Weber Paul Wolfowitz R. James Woolsey Robert B. Zoellick Men from Jinsa link to thenation.com A Rose By Another Name link to counterpunch.org New Pentagon Papers link to dir.salon.com “From May 2002 until February 2003, I observed firsthand the formation of the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans and watched the latter stages of the neoconservative capture of the policy-intelligence nexus in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. This seizure of the reins of U.S. Middle East policy was directly visible to many of us working in the Near East South Asia policy office, and yet there seemed to be little any of us could do about it. I saw a narrow and deeply flawed policy favored by some executive appointees in the Pentagon used to manipulate and pressurize the traditional relationship between policymakers in the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies. I witnessed neoconservative agenda bearers within OSP usurp measured and carefully considered assessments, and through suppression and distortion of intelligence analysis promulgate what were in fact falsehoods to both Congress and the executive office of the president.” Log in to Reply . Kathleen June 15, 2011 at 10:39 am Yeah Weissman more concerned about a military confrontation with Iran being blamed on Jews in the US and Israel which would be the individuals to blame. He is not concerned about loss of life in Iran. Pathetic and telling. Weissman and Rosen belong in prison. Selected case files for the 9 time delayed and then dismissed Aipac espionage investigation and trial link to fas.org April 23, 2007 Is the Media Sabotaging the AIPAC Spy Trial? link to antiwar.com Log in to Reply . casaananda June 15, 2011 at 10:50 am One of these days the far right and AIPAC are going to overplay their hand and the majority of Americans will finally “get it” and realize the US is being used and abused. The sooner the better. Log in to Reply . Chu June 15, 2011 at 12:47 pm ‘and the far quasi-left, like weiner’ Log in to Reply . munro June 15, 2011 at 11:19 am “the neoconservative complicity in the burning of Iraq as a means of improving Israel’s security.” Phil, wasn’t the Iraq war an offensive action for Israeli expansion and dominance, not defensive for “security” (which is how they justify everything)? Log in to Reply . eGuard June 15, 2011 at 11:21 am Does Weissman not understand his own logic?… we may be going down a path, helped along by the American Jewish community, [to war] with Iran. [...] they will be able to blame [it] on the Jews. So: the America Jewry helps “us” down the war path — and then will be blamed! (Clearly, he does not want to prevent such a war, nor prevent Jewish help into that. He only wants to disconnect the blaming part). Log in to Reply . Mooser June 15, 2011 at 12:02 pm He only wants to disconnect the blaming part. --------------------- - BACK TO INDEX - REPLY - QUOTE - EDIT - DELETE -

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