Ed Pearl: Obama Meets the Lobby, Friday Nite Videos

From: Sid Shniad

http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/07/16/obama_meets_the_lobby

Foreign Policy
07/16/2009

Obama meets the Lobby

Stephen M. Walt

This past Monday, President Obama met with the heads of a number of
prominent Jewish groups, to talk about the state of U.S.-Israeli relations
and the future direction of U.S. Middle East policy. Virtually all the news
reports I've seen suggest that the attendees had a cordial and candid
discussion. After reading through various accounts, I have three comments.

First, although a few individuals in the Israel lobby continue to downplay
its influence, the very fact that this meeting was held is additional
testimony to its important role in shaping U.S. Middle East policy. Why was
Barack Obama taking time from his busy schedule to meet with the heads of
groups like AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League, J Street, Hadassah, and the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (among
others)? Simple: he knows that these groups have a lot of political power.
He also knows that the success of his Middle East policy depends in large
part on getting significant support from them. In a political system like
ours, where well-organized interest groups routinely wield disproportionate
influence over the issues they care about, holding a White House sit-down
with these key leaders was smart politics.

Second, the meeting also makes it clear that there have been significant
changes within the lobby over the past several years, and that there is an
evident rift between those who think the United States should continue to
the same "special relationship" with Israel, and those who believe that it
would be in Israel and America's interest if Washington adopted a more
candid and nuanced policy toward the Jewish state. It is noteworthy that the
invitees included representatives from both J Street and Americans for Peace
Now -- groups that openly favor a two-state solution and have been backing
Obama's campaign to halt all construction in the settlements. Maybe even
more noteworthy, the more hard-line groups were remarkably restrained in
defending the settlement enterprise.

What's going on here? Some of these developments reflect the more open
discourse that has begun to emerge on Israeli policy and the U.S.-Israeli
relationship. Thankfully, it is no longer taboo to discuss these subjects,
as it once was. This shift is occurring in good part because a growing
number of American Jews are worried that Israel is on a path to become an
apartheid state, and that the United States has been enabling that
development by giving Israel generous and unconditional support.

The failed Lebanon war of 2006 and the brutal onslaught against Gaza earlier
this year have also raised concerns that Israel has lost its moral and
strategic compass. You know a country is in trouble when it routinely
attacks respected human rights organizations like Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch, or when a group of its own soldiers releases damning
personal testimony about their own misconduct in Gaza. (The courage and
candor of these Israeli dissidents remains a redeeming feature of Israel's
otherwise troubled democracy). And you know the hardliners in the lobby are
getting desperate when they have to hire a professional spinmeister to come
up with Orwellian talking points defending the occupation, such as the
bizarre claim that removing illegal settlers from the West Bank would be a
form of "ethnic cleansing." (For more on the latter shenanigans, see Richard
Silverstein's valuable commentary here, here, and here.)

Third, it is also clear that the hard-line leadership remains trapped in
old-think on a lot of these issues. For example, ADL head Abraham Foxman
complained before the meeting that "What troubles me most is a lack of
consultation and the need [for the administration] to do things publicly.
There's a [U.S.-Israel] relationship of 60 years and all of a sudden they're
treating Israel like everyone else. I find that disturbing." In the same
vein, Malcolm Hoenlein of the President's Conference reportedly told Obama
at the meeting that differences between the U.S. and Israel should be kept
private, and that progress toward peace had only occurred when there was "no
daylight" between American and Israeli leaders.

To his credit, Obama immediately pointed out the flaw in that line of
argument, saying "For eight years, there was no light between the United
States and Israel, and nothing got accomplished." He might have added that
there was precious little daylight during the Clinton years either, which is
one of the many reasons why the Oslo process came to naught.

What Foxman and Hoenlein still don't understand is that the special
relationship is in fact harmful to the United States and Israel alike. It
has allowed Israel to pursue foolish policies -- like building
settlements -- and implicated the United States in them. Israel would be
much better off if the United States did "treat it like everyone else," or
at least like other democracies. If it did, the U.S. would back Israel when
it acts in ways we deem desirable, but U.S. leaders would criticize and
oppose Israel's actions when they are contrary to U.S. interests or values.
In the end, a normal relationship between the two countries would be far
healthier than the "special relationship" that Hoenlein and Foxman have long
defended.

On this point, Obama could have quoted former Israeli foreign minister
Shlomo Ben-Ami, who notes in his excellent book Scars of War, Wounds of
Peace that the two presidents who made "meaningful breakthroughs on the way
to an Arab-Israeli peace" (Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush) succeeded
because they were "ready to confront Israel head on and overlook the
sensibilities of her friends in America." Obama is actually employing a
smarter approach than these two predecessors. Like Carter and Bush, he
appears to be willing "to confront Israel head on," but instead of
"overlooking" the sensibilities of pro-Israel groups, as they did, he is
doing his best to bring them along. Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street put the point
well after the White House meeting: Obama "knows how to push while he's
hugging."

Obama also made it clear that the Palestinians and the Arab states also need
to do more (a point that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton underscored in a
major speech yesterday), and that Washington will have to put pressure on
all sides. But the United States has lots of experience putting pressure on
the Palestinians and the Arabs -- in fact, one attendee at the meeting
quoted Obama as saying that U.S. pressure on the Arabs is a "dog bites man"
story -- so that will not be hard to do. Pressuring Israel, on the other
hand, has been a much rarer occurrence, but it is now necessary if Obama
hopes to move toward a two-state solution and foster lasting peace between
Israel and the Arab states around it. If he sticks to the positions he's
already outlined and follows through -- and if the leaders he met with on
Monday have the good sense to back him -- Obama just might succeed.

***

----- Original Message -----
From: <moderator@PORTSIDE.ORG>
Subject: Friday Nite Videos -- July 17, 2009

1 White Men Can't Judge - Sotomayor: Judgment Days
2 Sonia Sotomayor's Gang Ties and Racist Affiliations
3 Blakk Rasta - Barack Obama
4 Add Your Name: We Want the Public Option
5 Sen. Bernie Sanders Advocates for Health Care
6 Go Ahead And Die! (Pirates Of The Health Care-ibean)
7 Casualites Music Video -- Music from 'The Salt Reaper'

White Men Can't Judge - Sotomayor: Judgment Days

Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings continue, as
Patrick Leahy takes pictures in the corner, and Lindsey
Graham becomes her chief tormenter.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-july-16-2009/white-men-can-t-judge---sotomayor--judgment-days
July 16, 2009
6:05

===

Judgmental

Wyatt Cenac exposes Sonia Sotomayor's gang ties and
racist affiliations by talking to her former
classmates.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-july-16-2009/judgmental
July 16, 2009
4:16
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-july-16-2009/judgmental

===

Blakk Rasta - Barack Obama

Ghanaian Reggae artish supporting Barack Obama with a
single hit release, Barack Obama.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L85YF0pyPH0
June 06, 2008
4:31

===

Add Your Name: We Want the Public Option

Democracy for America & the Progressive Change Campaign
Committee will air this ad in Washington, DC and target
states.

www.wewantthepublicoption.com
0:30

===

Sen. Bernie Sanders Advocates for Health Care

[Bernie Sanders provides some refreshing straight talk.
The VA? Socialized medicine. Medicare? Single
payer. "The function of what we're doing here is
not to support the private health insurance industry."
-- videoMod]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSM8t_cLZgk
July 14, 2009

3:19

===

Go Ahead And Die! (Pirates Of The Health Care-ibean)

Health care crisis as depicted by pirates - music by
Austin Lounge Lizards

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNuCfD5bICQ
August 13, 2006
3:25

===

Casualites Music Video

Music from "The Salt Reaper - Selected poems from the
flats." 2009 by Angelo Rombley, Big Eye Opener Studios.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlWWBMWPs7c
February 13, 2009
2:06

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