Pro-Israeli Lobby a Force to Be Reckoned With,
by Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, Fox News, May 28, 2002
"Strong condemnation among congressional members most often follows the homicide bombings rocking Israeli towns, with lawmakers throwing support behind Israel's continued operation to rid Palestinian territories of terrorists. After an explosion in the town of Rishon Letzion on Thursday killed two people and the bomber, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said, "The innocent Israelis murdered today underscore the need to stand with Israel as they eliminate the terrorist networks." DeLay's strong response was one of many expressions of support coming from congressional members, who repeatedly remind voters of the strong U.S.-Israel alliance dating back to Israel's 1948 foundation. But widespread congressional support is rooted in more than just a long-term relationship. It is traced to the power of the collective Jewish or pro-Israeli lobby, a well-organized, well-funded, extremely active, and extraordinarily connected group, according to political analysts. 'They are very savvy and sophisticated,' said Richard Semiatin, a political science professor at American University. 'They are extremely knowledgeable and some of the best lobbyists in the country when they get into congressional offices.' Indeed, the latest crisis in the Middle East, which has been punctuated by 20 months of Palestinian uprisings that resulted in dozens of homicide bombings and the subsequent ongoing occupation of disputed Palestinian territory, has only energized this Washington lobby. The group has been hosting near-daily organizational conferences, press events, op-eds, advertising campaigns, and rallies — all demanding that Arafat get control of his militant supporters and reform his corrupt Parliament. 'It's a little like the special forces teams who go in to fight in Afghanistan. They're on the ground, calling in bombers. The planes overhead are the pro-Israeli supporters across the country,' who donate money to campaigns and send letters to Washington, said former Clinton political adviser Dick Morris. "It's a very effective model and basically unequaled in the Congress' ... Granted, other groups, including the National Rifle Association, the Cuban American National Foundation and the American Trial Lawyers Association, all command large audiences and ready support in the aggressive environment of Washington. But AIPAC, along with the American Jewish Committee, the American Defense League, the United Jewish Communities, the National Jewish Democratic Council, and the Republican Jewish Coalition, all of whom conduct their own grassroots campaigns, have surpassed the partisan and political bickering that often marks policy on guns, Cuba and tort law ... A week later, congressional leaders like DeLay and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., delivered rousing speeches to AIPAC's annual conference, the most powerful lobbying force for the Jewish-American community. DeLay's speech was followed by instructions to blanket Capitol Hill with lobbying teams ... 'It is truly disturbing to see American elected officials falling over themselves in an unseemly attempt to 'pledge allegiance' to a foreign government and its domestic lobby,' complained the Council on American-Islamic Relations in a recent statement ... Indeed, the number of Jews in the United States Congress well surpasses the population as a whole. Seven percent of members are Jewish, while the Jewish-American population totals 2.2 percent, about 6 million people in a nation of 280 million. But Jewish-Americans accounted for 4 percent of total voter turnout in the 2000 elections, totaled close to 3 percent of swing voters in several key states and their fund-raising ability is nearly unmatched, say experts ... In 2001, AIPAC spent $1.1 million in lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill, which Block said is typical. None of that money went directly to political campaigns. Neither does AIPAC endorse candidates. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, pro-Israeli donors, including PACs and individuals, gave $28.6 million to Democrats and $12.7 million to Republicans. About $17.5 million came from PACs and $24 million from individuals. By comparison, Arab-American and Muslim PAC contributions totaled $296,830 since 1990, with Democrats receiving $206,908 of that money."

Pro-Israel PAC Contributions to 2000 Congressional Candidates 1999-2000 Cycle,
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
[Includes long lists of such funds to American politicians]
TOTAL for 1999-2000 Election Cycle: $2,044,606
TOTAL 1978-2000 Funds to Congressional Candidates: $34,607,182
TOTAL No. of Recipient Candidates, 1978-2000 1,732 Related figures:
Total US aid to Israel since 1948:
According to the US government: $82 Billion.
According to WRMEA's calculations: $94 Billion

[THE "BLIND CHRISTIAN" OF THE YEAR AWARD GOES TO "THE CHRISTIAN COALITION OF AMERICA"]
The Christian Coalition and the Jewish Community,
by Ronn Torossian, October 18, 2002, Israel Report (Arutz Sheva)
"As a political consultant, I often am perplexed at the attitude of the Jewish community to many of the conservative causes that I work for. As one who works for The Moledet Party, Zionist Organization of America and many others, at no time I have been so perplexed as in my current position as Media Director for The Christian Coalition of America. As Israel faces terrorist bombings day after day, Anti-Semitism like we haven't seen since World War Two, assimilation and so many other evils, Abraham Foxman and many others tell us 'Beware of the Christians, they want you to convert.' As one who speaks with the Coalition's President ten times a day and maintains a working relationship with Pat Robertson and all of the leading Evangelicals in the United States, I can personally tell you that never once has the leadership of the Coalition asked me to convert ... As I managed the hundreds of media correspondents, and made statements on behalf of the Christian Coalition countless times this past weekend at the organization's annual conference, I felt at home, and in fact more at home than I do in many Jewish events ... The Christian Coalition has 2 Million pro-family supporters, and have influence in the White House. I know on a first hand basis that their Pro-Israel rally this past weekend at which 10,000 people attended had more influence on The White House and world leaders than the Jewish community's pro-Israel rally did a few months ago. One Christian rally does more than 100 Jewish rallies ... As a God fearing Jew, I see eye to eye with them, not only on their Israel agenda, but also on their pro-family agenda, and urge the rest of the Jewish community to join me, and utilize real politick when analyzing their support. Pass the bible, pass the ammunition, and pass the Christians your tickets to Israel, for while we condemn them, they are going and spending money keeping Jewish families safe and financially secure in the Jewish state. When the other issue comes up, let's deal with it. Till then, urge them to support us and let's help them."

In Prexy Bid, Vt. Gov Taps AIPAC Vet Married to Jew, Courting Others,
[Jewish] Forward, November 22, 2002
"Governor Howard Dean of Vermont, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 as a fiscal conservative and social liberal, is making a concerted effort to develop a national Jewish constituency for his candidacy. In a wide-ranging telephone interview with the Forward, Dean, a physician, reflected at length on his 'internationalist' foreign policy, his attachment to Judaism through his wife, who is Jewish, and on how having a Jewish family has informed his views on Israel. Dean spoke with the Forward shortly after naming Steven Grossman, a former head of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and ex-chairman of the Democratic National Committee, to a top campaign fundraising post. In addition, Dean said he is traveling to Israel for a week at the end of the month with the American Israel Educational Foundation, AIPAC's educational arm, to meet with Israeli officials and Arab leaders. Dean also discussed his planned appearance at a December 9 fundraising dinner for Americans for Peace Now, where he will present an award to a friend, APN activist Patricia Barr. Asked if his appearance at the Peace Now event should be read as a signal of his views on the Middle East, Dean said, 'No, my view is closer to AIPAC's view' ... The governor, who grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and in the Hamptons as the scion of a wealthy Wall Street family, is married to an internist, Dr. Judith Steinberg, with whom he practiced medicine for 10 years. He credits Steinberg's grandmother, who was born in Russia, with fostering his attachment to the Jewish state. 'I feel close to this family that I was lucky enough to marry into,' he told the Forward. 'Israel is an important part of what it means to be a Jew. It must never be overrun and eliminated.' He added that he has similar feelings about other democracies such as Taiwan. He called his attachment to Israel 'visceral' ... Grossman, the former AIPAC and DNC official, said Dean would appeal to American Jews because Jews, in effect, like doctors."

Israel Eyes Up to $10B in U.S. Aid advertisement,
Washington Post, November 21, 2002
"Israel will ask the United States for loan guarantees aimed at jump-strating its economy which has been damaged by two years of violence and the request will total between $8 billion and $10 billion, a senior government official said Thursday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that the Finance and Defense ministries are finalizing the request and would forward it to the United States in the coming days. The request for guarantees on foreign bank loans would be in addition to the $2.9 million in direct loans and grants that Israel receives annually from the United States, the official said. Israel, which receives the largest U.S. aid package of any country, relies on the loan guarantees to borrow at lower interest rates ...The United States guaranteed $10 billion in loans for Israel a decade ago to help it absorb immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Angry over Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, then-President George Bush held up the guarantees until the hard-line Yitzhak Shamir was replaced as Israeli prime minister by more moderate Yitzhak Rabin, who signed an interim peace treaty with the Palestinian Liberation."

Arab League blasts new U.S. aid to Israel,
UPI, Novmeber 28, 2002
"The 22-country Arab League Thursday criticized the United States for considering $12 billion in new military and economic aid to Israel at a time the bloc says Israel has been conducting unprecedented aggression against the Palestinian people. An Israeli team met with U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice Monday to request $14 billion in continued aid to defray the costs of fighting terrorism and to bolster the country's economy. A new delegation is to return to Washington next week to formulate the details of the aid package, the Israeli newspaper Globe reported Thursday. Arab League spokesman Hisham Youssef said Washington's position 'raises many questions and causes worries.' Youssef said Washington instead should ban exporting some weapons that Israel has used against the Palestinian civilians. 'This U.S. stand appears like a reward to Israel for violating peace pledges and ignoring international resolutions,' Youssef said."

State Dept. official: All U.S. aid to Arab world under review,
Ha'aretz (Israel), November 16, 2002
"The United States is reviewing all its aid to the Arab world to see how much it can redirect to programs that promote democracy and the rule of law, a State Department official said on Friday. The review includes all assistance to Egypt, the second largest recipient of U.S. aid after Israel and one of Washington's best friends in the Arab world, he said ... But the Egyptian government has upset the United States at least twice this year, first by jailing prominent Egyptian-American sociologist Saadeddin Ibrahim and more recently by allowing state television to broadcast a series which American Jewish groups say is anti-Semitic. U.S. diplomats in Cairo have been watching the series, 'Knight without a House', as it unfolds during the fasting month of Ramadan and have concluded that they do not like its treatment of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. 'We are very disappointed that the Government of Egypt TV station would air a program that includes scenes treating the so-called Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-Semitic forgery, as fact,' the U.S. official said. "This broadcast does great harm to Egypt's reputation. We will continue to express to the government of Egypt our serious concern over this matter. This kind of program does not contribute to the climate of mutual understanding and tolerance that the Middle East so needs,' the official added. Egypt and the United States have also been at odds this year over U.S. threats to attack Iraq ... U.S. officials say they believe that antagonism toward the United States in the Arab world is based on ignorance, misunderstanding or propaganda by Arab governments. Arabs say their main problem is with U.S. policies."

US warns companies over Israel boycott,
BBC, November 5, 2002
"The United States has threatened to fine US companies that take part in an Arab lead economic boycott of Israel. 'The US government is strongly opposed to restrictive trade practices or boycotts targeted at Israel,' said Undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Kenneth Juster. 'The Commerce Department is closely monitoring efforts that appear to be made to reinvigorate the Arab boycott of Israel and will use all of its resources to vigorously enforce US anti-boycott regulations.' Mr Juster's threat came after 18 of the 22 members of the Arab League agreed to 'reactivate' a half-century-old ban on trade with Israel last week. US laws ban the participation by US nationals and companies in unsanctioned foreign government trade boycotts, especially the Arab League's boycott of Israel. The Department of Commerce has issued more than $26m (£16.7m) in fines and turned down export licences to those found violating the law."

White House to Recess Appoint Weintrab,
aptbo.com, (from Associated Press), December 5, 2002
"President Bush will use his recess appointment power to put Democratic attorney Ellen Weintraub on the Federal Election Commission, an administration official said Thursday. Weintraub is a lawyer with the Perkins Coie law firm in Washington, where her clients have included the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and its House counterpart."

Jewish legislators in the 108th Congress,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 6, 2002
[As 2.5% of the American population Jews constitute 11% of the U.S. Senate] "U.S. Senate: Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) Carl Levin (D-Mich.) Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) Russell Feingold (D-Wisc.) Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.)
U.S. House of Representatives:: Howard Berman (D-Calif.) Susan Davis (D-Calif.) Bob Filner (D-Calif.) Jane Harman (D-Calif.) Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) Howard Waxman (D-Calif.) Peter Deutsch (D-Fla.) Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) Ben Cardin (D-Md.) Barney Frank (D-Mass.) Sander Levin (D-Mich.) Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) Steve Rothman (D-N.J.) Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) Martin Frost (D-Texas) Eric Cantor (R-Va.) Bernard Sanders (Ind-Vt.)

Election 2002,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 6, 2002
"Eleven Jewish senators, 26 members of the House of Representatives and two new Jewish governors [Linda Lingle: Hawaii; Ed Rendell: Pennsylvania]. That is the tally, but what will the makeup of the 108th Congress mean for Israel and the American Jewish agenda? JTA election coverage includes the Jewish faces in Congress and insightful political analysis."

Ed Rendell, quiet on Jewish issues, wins bid for Pennsylvania governor,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 7, 2003
"Former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell didn’t make his Jewishness a campaign issue, but when he appeared on the podium to make his victory speech after he was elected governor of Pennsylvania, his favorite rabbi was there ... Rendell rarely shared the details of his Jewish background with Pennsylvania voters, preferring instead to make the story of Philadelphia´s revitalization the central message of his campaign."

Republican Congress will retain a pro-Israel bent, activists say,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 6, 2002
"Pro-Israel activists say they are confident their legislative priorities will be able to get through the new Congress, which is now under Republican control. In a Republican sweep that elated Republicans and stunned Democrats, the GOP retook control of the Senate and retained the House of Representatives in Tuesday’s elections. In the final election returns, which came early Wednesday morning, a predominance of pro-Israel lawmakers retained their seats, and several new faces emerged, many of whom pro-Israel officials called promising. The new Congress will take office at a critical time in U.S.-Israel relations, with Israel entering a heated election campaign, prospects for peace with the Palestinians at a standstill and a U.S.-led war against Iraq looming. The congressional approach to Israel and the Middle East are a significant component in those relations. Among the winners in this week’s elections were two new Jewish senators, Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who returns to the Senate after a two-year absence, and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), the former mayor of St. Paul, who will take the seat of the late Paul Wellstone. While American Jewish leaders were closely watching the poll results, there was not much concern: Officials had said they were comfortable with the candidates from both major parties in most of the congressional races. 'Everyone seems to be very good [for Israel] nowadays,' said Morris Amitay, a veteran Jewish activist who is treasurer of the pro-Israel Washington PAC. While the Jewish community is predominantly Democratic, Jewish groups have had much success getting legislation passed in a Republican House. Prior to the election, many said they believed they would have success no matter which party controls the Senate. Support for Israel 'is a bipartisan issue,' one American Jewish leader said. ”Congress is overwhelmingly pro-Israel.” Another senior pro-Israel official said his organization had spoken during the campaign season to virtually all the nonincumbent candidates who won Tuesday, and that they expected the 108th Congress to be even more supportive of Israel than the outgoing body. Many of the candidates that the pro-Israel community targeted for defeat were eliminated in primaries or were not seeking re-election."

THE GENERAL. His Family's Refugee Past Is Said to Inspire NATO's Commander,
by Elizabeth Becker, New York Times, May 3, 1999
"The American general who is leading NATO's military operation to stop Serbian troops from killing and expelling Albanians from Kosovo discovered as an adult that he is the grandson of a Russian Jew who fled his country to escape the pogroms there a century ago. Gen. Wesley Kanne Clark was raised as a Protestant in Little Rock, Ark., where he was brought up by his mother and stepfather, Victor Clark. He was ignorant of his ancestry, which disappeared from his life with the death of his father, Benjamin Jacob Kanne when Wesley was 5 years old. He learned of his ethnic background when he was in his 20's and embraced the discovery, according to several family members. Since President Slobodan Milosovic of Yugoslavia began the forced exodus of Albanians from Kosovo, many have drawn parallels with the expulsion of Jews from Russia and the Nazi mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust in Europe. General Clark has not discussed his heritage with many people, sharing his belated discovery of his biological father's family and background with only a few close friends and his immediate family. He declined to be interviewed for this article. But in interviews, some of his relatives and friends say that General Clark was inspired by the story of his grandfather's persecution and escape from his native land, and that his determination to defeat Milosevic is fed in part by his empathy for the victims of Serbian ethnic purges. After he was married, while studying at Oxford from 1966 to 1968, Wesley Clark was contacted by his father's relatives and gradually became aware of who his father and grandparents were. Soon after, he met some of the members of his lost family. He then slowly became part of the Kanne family, beginning with the initial phone call from a cousin in the late 1960's and culminating with an invitation to his first cousin Barry Kanne to spend a quiet New Year dinner with him in Belgium this year. General Clark also has become fluent in the Russian language and in the past three years has delved into the family history ... In the late 1890's, Jacob Nemerovsky, the general's grandfather, fled Russia in fear for his life during one of the episodic pogroms against Jews. According to the family, Nemerovsky found safety in Switzerland where he obtained a false passport under the family name of Kanne, which he used to immigrate to the United States. "Wes and I talked about his family once on a military plane to Bosnia," said Richard C. Holbrooke, the negotiator of the Dayton peace plan. 'I told him how my wife discovered she was Jewish in her 30's and he said, 'That's funny, I have a sort of similar story.'' (Another Clinton Administration official, Madeleine K. Albright, learned only after she was nominated as Secretary of State that her grandparents had died in concentration camps during the Holocaust.)"

A General for the Democrats?,
by Viveca Novak, CNN, November 18, 2002
[Note article above]
"Are dyspeptic Democrats ready to turn to a military man for leadership? Retired four-star general Wesley Clark, who has been famously opaque about his party preference and political future, met privately last week in New York City with a group of high-rolling Democrats and told them he was seriously considering a run for the White House, sources tell TIME. Lunching with about 15 Democratic donors and fund raisers at the Park Avenue offices of venture capitalist Alan Patricof, a strong Gore backer in '00 who is neutral so far for '04, Clark laid out his credentials and his differences with George W. Bush. A Rhodes scholar who fought in Vietnam and served as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe from 1997 to 2000, Clark said the U.S. should finish routing al-Qaeda before taking on Iraq and criticized Bush for being too dismissive of nonwar options there ... Clark, 57, is an investment banker in Little Rock, Ark., and a commentator for CNN."

Flushing candidate’s kin criticizes Jews, Asians,
By Alexander Dworkowitz, November 14, 2002
"Caroline Meng comments about Asian and Jewish political power in Queens posted on a Web site by the daughter of a Flushing candidate for the state Assembly has caused a stir among elected officials in the borough. Caroline Meng, 22, worked for her father, Jimmy Meng, in his bid to become Flushing’s new assemblyman and wrote about the campaign on the Web site www.wilmotgirls.com that she and friends from her alma mater, the University of Michigan, maintain. Jimmy Meng, running on the Independent and Conservative lines, finished second to Democrat Barry Grodenchik in the Nov. 5 general election. After Jimmy Meng narrowly lost the Democratic primary to Grodenchik in September, Caroline Meng, who was paid as part of her father’s campaign staff, posted her reaction to the results on Sept. 11. She criticized the support Grodenchik, a longtime adviser to former Borough President Claire Shulman and an aide to Borough President Helen Marshall, received from Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing), who is Taiwanese by birth. 'Another person who is supporting this Jew is this City Councilman John Liu,' Caroline Meng wrote. 'He’s an idiot who doesn’t realize that he’s being used by the Jews. So anyways, he calls all these Taiwanese voters telling them not to vote for my dad b/c he is from China, rather they should vote for the Jew.' Meng is the former head of the Flushing Chinese Business Association and Grodenchik, the only white candidate in the election, is Jewish. Four other Asian candidates seeking the seat were defeated earlier this month. 'So my question is, ‘Are the Taiwanese so proud that they would rather vote for a Jew than a person of their own race? Or does being from China make them a completely different race ... as different as the Jews?’' she asked on her Web site. 'It’s really sad how Asians can’t stick together. This is why we do not have any Asians holding prominent public office. The Jews stick together and that’s why they control everything.'' ... Caroline Meng’s remarks, which were removed from the Web site after the TimesLedger began its inquiry this week, revolve around one of the most closely watched assembly campaigns in the state ... 'All they have to do is turn away eight Chinese voters from each site, and boom! The Jew wins. That’s why I am so mad.' Caroline Meng told the TimesLedger that she stood by her comments. 'I didn’t lie or anything,' she said. 'I just told the truth about the county.'' Jimmy Meng, who was not aware of his daughter’s comments on her Web site, said her views did not reflect his own. 'I don’t agree with my daughter,' he said after having her commentary read to him. 'Jewish people help me a lot,’ he noted, referring to Jewish campaign contributors. He added: 'My lawyer’s Jewish.'”

Germany to triple its funding for country’s Jewish community,
Jewish Telegraphic Agnecy, November 14, 2002
"The German government has agreed to dramatically increase its financial support for the country´s Jewish community at a time of increased concern about anti-Semitism here. For the first time since the end of World War II, the federal government is establishing a contractual relationship with the Central Council of Jews in Germany. The development was announced at a news conference here Thursday by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Central Council President Paul Spiegel. According to the contract, Germany will triple its annual budget for the Central Council — to nearly $3 million — to meet the needs of a Jewish population that has grown threefold since 1990 with the arrival of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The contract, which will be similar to those with the Protestant and Catholic churches, still must be approved by the Parliament. 'It is a historical situation, and it proves that the German government is not only aware of the new Jewish community here but also supports it and welcomes it,” Spiegel told JTA. 'I am very happy.' The vice president of the Central Council, Michel Friedman, said, 'The country now is taking an institutional responsibility toward the welfare of Jewish life in this country.' Calling the development 'extraordinary,' Friedman also told JTA that no Jewish community in Europe has a similar contract."

No way to run reconstruction,
Washington Times, November 5, 2002
"[The debate about how to handle a defeated Nazi Germany] is recounted in Michael Beschloss' 'The Conquerers'" It is a timely and thought-provoking look at an issue that again has become topical. The subtitle might be, 'How Henry Morgenthau Almost Wrecked the Peace.' Morgenthau, a thoroughly assimilated American of Jewish descent, served for 12 years as secretary of the treasury in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. He was an unlikely candidate to become an anti-German crusader. His father was so adamant in his rejection of his heritage, he once advised Henry that 'the Jews will stab you in the back.' This lineage made the younger Morgenthau a surprising convert and champion of the rights of Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler, and Zionism. In his conversion, Morgenthau became a zealot, and like many zealots, he lost his sense of proportion. He was the first high-ranking American official to become aware of the full horror of the Holocaust and made the cause of punishing the German people, not just the Nazis, a crusade. None of this is new to readers with a general knowledge of World War II. However, the depth of the animosity and ill-feeling in the wartime Democratic administration will surprise many readers."

Jewish Bankers, Russia, and The Soviet Union, 1900-1940: The Case of Kuhn, Loeb and Company,
by Priscilla Roberts, American Jewish Archives Journal
[NOTE: This long article discusses Jewish American business activism in aiding the Communist Revolution by refusing the ruling Russian Tsar financial help]
"From 1917 at least throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Kuhn, Loeb and its assorted partners were all frequently accused of pro-Bolshevik sympathies. In the 1920s this was a standard charge leveled at Jewish bankers by anti-Semitic critics in the United States and Europe.1 During the First World War, this accusation carried additional overtones of pro Germanism and disloyalty to the Allied cause, due to the widespread belief that the Bolsheviks were German puppets whose real aim was to expedite a German victory by taking Russia out of the war. Suggestions that Kuhn, Loeb, particularly its senior partner, Jacob H. Schiff, had secretly financed the Bolshevik revolution complemented both the belief that the firm was pro-German and the fear that all Jews were radicals bent on overthrowing the social order, a viewpoint that seemed to be substantiated by allegations that most of the Russian Bolsheviks were Jewish. Such a decidedly capitalist institution as Kuhn, Loeb might appear an unlikely home for left-wing tendencies. Even so, British and French officials, American conservatives, Russian emigre organizations, and anti-Semites such as Henry Wickham Steed, the editor of the British Daily Mail, justified their fears by asserting that Schiff, his partner Felix Warburg, and other Jewish bankers had made loans to the Bolsheviks in exchange for valuable financial concessions in Russia ... [O]ne need not doubt that to committed leaders of the American Jewish community, particularly Jacob Schiff and Felix Warburg, the Russian Revolution of 1917 initially seemed to promise a long-awaited and welcome end to the oppression of Russian Jews. As so often on matters involving Jewish issues, Jacob Schiff was the most vocal of the partners. Initially he, like most American Jews, was optimistic over Russian developments, enthusiastically supporting the new Provisional Government. The delighted Jacob Schiff welcomed the revolution, which he hailed as 'almost a miracle almost greater than the freeing of our forefathers from Egyptian slavery.' He sent congratulatory telegrams to the new Russian leaders, served on a reception committee for the Russian mission that visited the United States later that year, and gave the Provisional Government concrete support in the shape of substantial subscriptions to Russian governmental bond issues."

As NATO meeing approaches, light shines on handling of Jewish issues,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 4, 2002
"Later this month, seven nations will clear a crucial hurdle toward full membership in NATO. But as they embrace a military alliance that seemed unimaginable during the Soviet era, these nations — Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia — will remain under close scrutiny to ensure they follow through on promises regarding 'value issues,' including how they handle Jewish affairs ... During the past decade, Jewish leaders and the U.S. State Department have used NATO membership as leverage to encourage the aspirants to confront their Holocaust history. That includes politically sensitive issues like local collaboration with the Nazis, property restitution, Holocaust education and commemoration and the prosecution of war criminals ... In Hungary in particular, he said, leaders were surprised when politicians there reverted to nationalist themes in elections and tolerated anti-Semitic remarks by far-right leaders. Meanwhile, the seven latest aspirants have taken a number of steps in advance of the Prague Summit: • Estonia declared a national Holocaust Day in its public schools after two years of stalling; • Slovakia ended six years of negotiations by agreeing to establish a $19 million restitution fund for its Jewish community ... Eastern European leaders acknowledge the importance of Jewish issues, but decisions are largely unpopular with local populations, most of whom — due to Soviet propaganda — were never educated about their nations’ Holocaust history."

A Hawk Who Earned His Feathers Under Clinton,
[Jewish] Forward, November 1, 2002
"Kenneth Pollack is the ultimate guy behind the guy... behind the guy. Pollack, 36, has spent the last 12 years in the upper echelons of government and intelligence work. In his capacity as a CIA analyst, director of Gulf affairs for the National Security Council and director of research for the liberal Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy, he has conferred with kings, presidents and prime ministers — nearly always in the capacity of aide-de-camp. But the behind-the-scenes expert is now making his voice heard on the main stage. With the publication of 'The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq' (Random House), Pollack has become a leading figure among the punditocracy supporting a pre-emptive American strike on Baghdad. So far he's made his case on CNN, NPR, Fox News, CSPAN and Charlie Rose's and Oprah Winfrey's television shows; Senator Joseph Lieberman quoted from the book on the floor of the Senate during the debate on Iraq last month. Pollack, who was once called by one of his colleagues 'the most hawkish man in the Clinton administration,' does not consider himself a hawk in the mold of Richard Perle, Douglas Feith or Paul Wolfowitz, the Bush administration neoconservatives who have been at the forefront of the call to arms against Iraq." [Pollack, Perle, Feith, and Wolfowitz are all Jewish]

Paul Wellstone, z"l, [home page]
[Jewish] Forward, November 1, 2002
"In a conversation in 1992, just over a year into his first term, [senator Paul] Wellstone admitted that coming to Washington had changed his understanding of himself as a Jew in the world. 'I had always had a strong Jewish identity,' he said, especially after his children were born 'and I began to wonder about their identity.' What was different in Washington, he said, was 'this expectation that because you're Jewish, you're expected to have something to say about Israel.' That is, he had found, in addition to the common Jewish attachment to Jewish values, a compelling need to defend Jewish interests. And, over time, he did his duty — not always the way others would have liked, but always in line with his conscience and his understanding of the best interests of the Jewish people."

Latin America's Dilemma: Otto Reich's Propaganda is Reminiscent of the Third Reich,
Common Dreams, April 19, 2002
"The Bush administration is engaging in damage control for their questionable involvement in the failed 2 day coup against the democratically elected government of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Alarmingly, the ominous Otto Reich [father is Jewish] is emerging as a key player in the administration's role in the failed coup attempt to replace Chavez with an oligarchy of business, military and wealthy elites ... Reich is a right-wing Cuban-American obsessed with overthrowing Fidel Castro's regime and is also a big political supporter of President Bush's brother and Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who needs strong support from Cubans in Florida in his re-election bid this year. Reich, along with fellow Reagan administration cohorts, Elliott Abrams and John Negroponte, were discredited for their covert activities and false assertions when the United States intervened in Central America in the 1980's and '90s, but have been re-instated in prominent positions in the second Bush administration. They abhor Latin-American governments that are elected by the poor and working class people, like the Chavez government in Venezuela and the deposed Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Abrams was convicted of lying to Congress about the Iran-Contra scandal, but has been remarkably rehabilitated and recycled back into the second Bush administration as head of the 'Office of Democracy and Human Rights' ... The most recent resurrection of this trio of right-wing renegades is the appointment of Otto Reich ... On September 30, 1987 a Republican appointed comptroller general of the U.S. found that Reich had done things as director of the OPD that were 'prohibited, covert propaganda activities, 'beyond the range of acceptable agency public information activities...'. The same report said Mr. Reich's operation violated 'a restriction on the State Department's annual appropriations prohibiting the use of federal funds for publicity or propaganda purposes not authorized by Congress.' Reich used the covert propaganda to demonize the democratically elected Sandinista government of Nicaragua and establish the Contras as fearless freedom fighters."

Oil and Israel. Two unspoken reasons why Bush wants to wage war against Iraq,
by Michael Kinsley, MSNBC (Slate magazine), October 24, 2002
"So, why exactly is Iraq different from North Korea? Both are founding members of President Bush’s 'axis of evil,' and both deserve that honor. North Korea has now admitted to a nuclear weapons development program on about the same timeline as what we only suspect about Iraq. So, why are we barely complaining in one case and off to war in the other? ... The lack of public discussion about the role of Israel in the thinking of 'President Bush' is easier to understand, but weird nevertheless. It is the proverbial elephant in the room: Everybody sees it, no one mentions it. The reason is obvious and admirable: Neither supporters nor opponents of a war against Iraq wish to evoke the classic anti-Semitic image of the king’s Jewish advisers whispering poison into his ear and betraying the country to foreign interests. But the consequence of this massive 'Shhhhhhhhh!' is to make a perfectly valid American concern for a democratic ally in a region of nutty theocracies, rotting monarchies, and worse seem furtive and suspicious." [Kinsley is Jewish]

Pro-Israel lobby flexes muscles, making some legislators uneasy,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Oct. 22, 2002
"Pro-Israel lawmakers, including some Jewish members of the U.S. House of Representatives, are complaining about the influence of Jewish lobbying groups on Middle East issues. According to congressional staffers and lobbyists, several pro-Israel congressmen are agitated by the type of influence that Jewish organizations are exerting, specifically their calls to support the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Following the defeat this year of several incumbents deemed anti-Israel — defeats attributed in part to the influence of Jewish money — congressmen who normally would speak out on the Middle East are finding it better to stay quiet. Most of the focus is on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the influential pro-Israel lobbying organization. The organization stresses that its mandate is to support the policies of the current Israeli government, but lawmakers say AIPAC has little tolerance for more dovish stances, such as calls for restraint during Israeli military incursions into the West Bank and Gaza Strip ... In two highly publicized congressional primaries this year, incumbents who were considered anti-Israel lost to challengers who received large amounts of Jewish money. Both Reps. Earl Hilliard (D-Ala.) and Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) were targeted by Jewish groups because of their perceived anti-Israel stances. “It was designed to send the message, ‘Shut up,’ and that message was heard,” one longtime Jewish community activist said. 'It will have a chilling effect on the Middle East debate' ... While there have been cases in the past of Jewish money helping to defeat powerful legislators, the McKinney and Hilliard races showed that Jewish activists will target even lawmakers without a great deal of influence. That has forced some lawmakers to cast votes against their better judgment, sources said. “For the first time they are going after people who are obscure and insignificant,” the community activist said. 'It sends a message that you can be from Podunk, Miss. and we’ll go after you.' Officials at other Jewish organizations say they are being told by lawmakers and staffers that they feel more pressure than usual, and are fearful that any vote could come back to haunt them. 'Since Sharon became prime minister they hold their nose and do what they’re told by AIPAC,' the community activist said. 'What members say privately is totally at a variance with what they say publicly.'”

America's Richest Politicians,
Forbes, October 29, 2002
"For too long, politics has been the playground of the legal class. Indeed, there are more attorneys keeping seats warm in the three branches of the federal government than any other profession. Recently, though, business leaders--who are responsible for society's most dynamic and important improvements--have started to crash the political party. [Richest: Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York. Net Worth: 4.8 billion dollars, four times richer than the next wealthiest politician]

Jewish Legislators Back Iraq Resolution,
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, October 18, 2002
"Stop Saddam Hussein now, before it’s too late. That is the message elected officials, ranging from local members of Congress to President George W. Bush, worked to get across to the Americans these past few weeks. 'We have to confront him sooner or later," Rep. Howard Berman (D-Mission Hills) told The Journal. 'Even though it is risky and we are worried about all the things that could go wrong, it is less risky, less costly and less dangerous to do it now than it would be later, both for our military and for the Iraqi people.' It is a position shared by many in Congress. Despite fierce debate in the House and the Senate, both houses last week passed a joint resolution giving Bush the authority to use military force, if necessary, to compel Iraq to destroy its biological and chemical weapons and disband its nuclear weapons program. Support for the measure was mixed among California representatives and senators, but strong among the state’s Jewish elected officials."

Israeli sympathizers’ arrogance knows no bounds,
By Raff Ellis, Arab News, October 2002
"While channel surfing a couple of weeks ago, I landed on the 'Anna Nicole Smith Show,' quite by accident I assure you. In the scene I happened upon, the irrepressible Anna Nicole was riding in the back of a limousine with her lawyer, Howard K. Stern, on their way to some celebrity bash. 'I think it would be good if you said something in support of Israel,' Howard offered, out of the blue. I was somewhat shocked that this solicitation, completely out of context with the proceedings, would come while the camera was rolling. Nicole demurred, not that it would have made much difference in the greater scheme of things, that is. The incident set me thinking of how invidious and ubiquitous the pro-Israeli sympathizers are. It isn’t enough that our administration, Congress, and media find little if any fault with the State of Israel. It isn’t enough that Israel receives massive amounts of military and economic aid, courtesy of US taxpayers. It isn’t enough that our diplomats fight Israel’s battles in the international arena. No, they have to answer every critic, cultivate every personality, and promote its agenda in every forum lest it suffer a percentile drop in its overwhelming support."

Home PM plans to ask U.S. for aid that could top $10 billion,
Ha'aretz (Israel), October 22, 2002
"An inter-ministerial team headed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's bureau chief, Dov Weisglass, is working on a proposal requesting American economic assistance that could top $10 billion. The team includes representatives from the treasury, the Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry. A government source said the reason for the aid request stems from the United States' expected campaign against Iraq coupled with the American desire that Israel not interfere with Washington's plans or use IDF troops against Iraq. Sources at the Prime Minister's Office said yesterday that American readiness to provide economic assistance has not been made in concrete terms. However, a number of ideas have cropped up in Jerusalem over the type of aid Israel could use: cash, guarantees for low-interest bank loans from American banks, direct state-to-state loans from the U.S. treasury, and the conversion of some American defense aid into shekels. Currently, Washington provides Israel $2.1 billion a year that must be spent in the United States on defense supplies. One proposal is for $2 billion to be converted to shekels and used to purchase defense equipment from Israeli manufacturers in the hope that it would invigorate the Israeli economy."

Lieberman: We Don't Need U.N.,
New York Post, October 28, 2002
"A leading Democrat yesterday urged President Bush to get tough with the United Nations, saying that the United States should go it alone on Iraq if France and other countries drag their feet ... Al Gore's running mate in 2000 and a potential 2004 candidate, [Senator Joseph] Lieberman has consistently taken a tough line with Iraq. His criticism of Bush yesterday put Lieberman into a small group of lawmakers willing to see the United States ignore the United Nations completely."

Smearing the Antiwar Movement. Neocon Thought Police on the Prowl,
by Justin Raimondo, Etherzone, October 28, 2002 issue
"As if to confirm what some opponents of this war have been saying – but not too loudly – about this being a war for Israel, the Bush administration is now 'weighing an Israeli proposal for a joint operation in Iraq's western desert to disarm Iraqi missiles before they could be launched against Israel.' That this war has always been about Israel is a matter of simple geography. For all the President's palavering about the 'threat to Americans' posed by Iraq, those 'weapons of mass destruction' Saddam supposedly has couldn't even reach Europe, let alone the U.S. But Tel Aviv is well within range. Indeed, the prospect of Iraqi missiles raining down on Israel has been one of the chief deterrents against a move by Israel's far-right Likud government to ethnically cleanse Palestine of Arabs – a plan that is increasingly popular among Israelis – and/or move the IDF back into Lebanon. The U.S. occupation of Iraq will eliminate that deterrent – and set up Israel to deal with Hizbollah the Syria in the regional conflagration to follow. The oddly showy attempts by U.S. government officials to downplay the extent of U.S.-Israeli collaboration have never been too convincing – if they were, you see, the Israeli lobby in the U.S. would be outraged, and that would be the end of that. But who's kidding whom? The coming war in the Middle East will be a joint operation between Washington and Tel Aviv in every sense, not only militarily but also on the political and diplomatic fronts. In the blockbuster second issue of The American Conservative, Paul W. Schroeder, professor emeritus of history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, disdained the Oedipal explanation for the origins of the President's war plans, writing: 'Much more plausible is the suggestion that this plan is being promoted in the interests of Israel. Certainly it is being pushed very hard by a number of influential supporters of Israel of the hawkish neoconservative stripe in and outside the administration (Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, William Kristol, and others) and one could easily make the case that a successful preventive war on Iraq would promote particular Israeli security interests more than general American ones.'"

High Stakes on ‘Down Ballot’,
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, October 25, 2002
"They may be 'down ballot,'or low profile, races for state offices, but the contests for insurance commissioner and controller in the Nov. 5 election could have important international effects on the Jewish community. California’s next insurance commissioner will have an important voice in the settlement and distribution of Holocaust-related funds. The responsibilities of the state controller include seats on public pension fund boards, where the battles over divestment of investments related to Israel may be fought. Nearly a quarter of all U.S. claims made to the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC) have come from California. The California insurance commissioner, along with the commissioners of several other states, European insurance regulators and Israeli and Jewish organization officials form the ICHEIC board ... In 1999, California passed the Holocaust Victim Insurance Relief Act, which requires insurance companies that do business in the state to provide information regarding any policies sold by the companies or their affiliates in Europe between 1920-1945. The insurance commissioner has the power to revoke the business license of any company that does not comply with the law ... [Candidate Gary] Mendoza, a former state corporations commissioner and Los Angeles deputy mayor under Richard Riordan, was also state chairman of the Bush for President 2000 campaign. . ... 'I’ve been an outspoken supporter of Israel for years,' Mendoza said. 'Israel is fighting our fight right now. Statewide officeholders have an opportunity to speak out and support our allies. I’d like to see a declaration of independence from Arab oil.'"

The hijacking of America,
Toronto Sun, October 13, 2002
"The United States Congress has spoken. Not with a roar, but with a whimper, handing President George W. Bush a blank cheque to go to war against Iraq because of the 'imminent threat' it supposedly poses to America. One is reminded of the revolting spectacle of Roman senators groveling at the feet of emperor Tiberius. The notion of Iraq, a demolished nation of 22.3 million posing an 'imminent threat' to the United States, a nation of 281 million, is ludicrous. In fact, anti-Saddam Kurds and southern Shia Muslims comprise 17.7 million, or 79%, of Iraq's population, leaving only 4.6 million Sunnis who more or less support the regime. That's about the population of Hong Kong. But a steady drumbeat of bellicose propaganda, pressure from powerful special interests thirsting to destroy Iraq, and election year politics have combined to stampede Congress and many Americans into believing this grotesque, Orwellian fiction ... Last week, CIA Director George Tenet took the courageous step of publicly refuting Bush's claim that Iraq was an imminent threat. Tenet's unprecedented rebuke was a warning to America, but it also signalled the deep resentment felt in the U.S. intelligence community over the way Israel's intelligence service, Mossad, and its American helpers, have become the White House's primary source of decision-making information on Iraq, Palestine, Iran and Afghanistan ... Tenet was immediately attacked and denounced by pro-Israel commentators, though a number of senior Israeli officers have echoed Tenet's assertions that there was no immediate risk from Iraq unless it is invaded."

Tom Lantos: Hawk in the midst of Doveland,
San Francisco Chronicle, October 13, 2002
"[Tom] Lantos has emerged as one of the most vocal Democratic backers of the Congressional resolution authorizing the Bush administration to launch a military strike against Iraq, if diplomatic efforts to disarm that country fail. He helped deliver a solid bipartisan vote of the International Relations Committee in favor of the resolution, setting the stage for Thursday's historic vote of the full House, which passed the bill 296-133. Along the way, he beat back an alternative resolution sponsored by Rep. Barbara Lee, D- Oakland, that would have blocked the United States from attacking Iraq without approval of the U.N. Security Council ... Lantos is the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to Congress ... An ardent supporter of the state of Israel, Lantos often praises that country's preemptive strike against Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981, which seriously reduced Iraq's ability to launch a nuclear weapons program."

Two women seek Hawaii's top job. Female governor to be state's first; GOP holds lead,
Boston Globe, October 14, 2002
"The race for governor in Hawaii is a battle for firsts: the Democrat hopes to become the first Japanese-born American to win a US governorship; her opponent is vying to win the seat for Republicans for the first time in four decades. And regardless of who wins, Hawaii voters will elect their first woman governor ever. The Republican, Linda Lingle, a 49-year-old former journalist and two-term mayor of Maui, has held a lead in public polls over Lieutenant Governor Mazie K. Hirono, 54 ... Lingle enjoys a 3-to-1 fund-raising lead over Hirono and the unified backing of her party ... In recent weeks, Lingle has been targeted by mailings that make crude and derogatory remarks about, among other things, her Jewish background. Postal inspectors were said to be investigating, and both camps denounced the smear campaign. ''We will not tolerate any action that uses derogatory racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual remarks,'' Hirono said. The candidates share similar views on some hot-button issues: Hirono backs same-sex marriage, while Lingle backs domestic partnerships. Hirono and her running mate, Matt Matsunaga, are both abortion-rights advocates; Lingle is also an abortion proponent." ALSO: Ad targets contributions, West Hawaii Today, October 7, 2002. "A new state Democratic Party television commercial focusing on mainland contributions to Linda Lingle has raised the ire of the GOP gubernatorial candidate and the state Republican Party. The commercial features a woman who says: 'Linda Lingle has received over a million dollars from mainland Republicans, businesses and special interests. What do all these outsiders want from Hawaii? And who would Linda Lingle really represent? Sorry, Miss Lingle. Hawaii is not for sale' ... Micah Kane, chairman of the Hawaii Republican Party, called the commercial deceitful and hypocritical. 'It also shows their desperate fear of losing the grip on power that they have held for the past 40 years,' Kane said."

It’s Jew vs. Jew in Minnesota, in close race for U.S. Senate seat,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Oct. 17, 2002
"Minnesota voters are poised once again to elect a Jew to the U.S. Senate — though it’s not clear if it will be Democratic incumbent Paul Wellstone or his Republican challenger, Norm Coleman. Both candidates have strong backers in the state’s 45,000-strong Jewish community. With Democrats struggling to maintain their narrow control of the Senate, every race is under heightened scrutiny. The Minnesota race has been deemed 'neck and neck' for weeks now. Wellstone’s seat is seen as vulnerable, leading Republican Jews to open their pocketbooks to Coleman. Fundraisers in St. Louis, Dallas and Los Angeles have raised $300,000 for Coleman, according to Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition. On the other side of the aisle, the National Jewish Democratic Council PAC sent a mailing to supporters highlighting the Wellstone race and encouraging contributions to the senator’s campaign. Also, the Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs, a Jewish group that advocates abortion rights and a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, lists Wellstone on its 'most endangered incumbents' list and encourages contributions to support him. JACPAC has given $6,000 to Wellstone’s campaign since last year. Unlike some other high-profile races that have galvanized Jewish attention this year, Jewish voters in Minnesota don’t have to mobilize against an anti-Israel candidate or focus on a single overarching issue where a candidate’s position could determine their vote."

From Israeli nukes to 'silly strategists',
Ha'aretz (Israel), October 25, 2002
"The last time strategic analyst Anthony Cordesman topped the Israeli news was when his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yielded the headline: 'Israel will retaliate with nuclear weapons in case of heavy casualties from an Iraqi missile attack' (by Ze'ev Schiff, on August 15). Cordesman's updated opinion, disseminated this week by the online Gulf Wire news agency, deals among other things with expected Israeli reactions to an Iraqi missile attack. But the Israeli reader will find much more interesting reading in other parts of the document written by the person now considered one of Washington's leading strategic thinkers on the Middle East. In the article, which deals with 'the gap between strategic theory and operational reality in the Middle East,' Cordesman writes that 'conventional missile attacks on Israel, and even token and ineffective Iraqi use of weapons of mass destruction, could trigger Israeli conventional attacks on Iraq. The U.S. can quietly discourage this by its traditional means.' Cordesman bluntly identifies these as 'bribes in the form of more aid to Israel' ... Hinting broadly about the advice President George Bush is getting from two key [Jewish] policy advisors, Richard Perle and Douglas Feith, Cordesman writes: 'The U.S. also needs to make it clear to the region that it does not endorse neo-conservative and Israeli fantasies about going on to region-wide conflicts or triggering broader overthrows of regimes. The U.S., however, can make it clear that its commitment to Israel does not involve a commitment to its sillier armchair strategists and more vocally irresponsible hardliners.'"

Former AIPAC Chairman Takes Over Democratic National Committee, Washington Report for Middle East Affairs, March 1997, pg. 41
"In 1992 an embarrassed American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) chairman David Steiner was forced to resign after a contributor, Harry Katz, taped him boasting that AIPAC was 'negotiating' with the incoming administration of President-elect Bill Clinton over who would be the next U.S. secretary of state. Steiner’s successor at AIPAC was Massachusetts Democratic activist Steve Grossman. In January of this year Grossman was named national chairman of the Democratic National Committee. But friends of AIPAC no longer seem embarrassed to acknowledge that the organization has progressed from 'negotiating' to dictating. As The Jewish Week of New York modestly put it in its Jan. 17 issue, 'another top Jewish activist will be playing a new role as Clinton II shifts into high gear.'”

JEWS APPLAUD 'DEFENDER BILL'
New York Post, August 3, 2002
"Jewish leaders hailed ex-President Bill Clinton yesterday for saying that he would grab a rifle and fight and die for Israel if Iraq attacked the Jewish state. 'Any time a former American president says he is willing to fight for Israel, that is a good thing. You will not see any other world leaders saying that,' said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles ... In a speech at a Jewish fund-raiser in Toronto Monday night, the ex-president said he would jump into the trenches if Iraq attacked Israel."

Old Money Wants Iraq Back,
Newsday, October 10, 2002
"The limousine was so long it looked like a small, mobile country of tinted glass. It was escorted by four Nassau County police cars. When Ahmed Chalebi stepped from it at the Mineola courthouse to speak to the media yesterday, correction officers stood guard. They wore bullet-proof vests. Chalebi wore a nice suit. He is an Iraqi-born, Western-educated investment banker and head of an organization calling itself the Iraqi National Congress. The members of this group are all exiles, and all opponents of Saddam Hussein. They want him out. They want parliamentary democracy in. The occasion for this visitation to the grubby courthouse by Chalebi, a patrician-looking, soft-spoken man, was a little obscure, to be honest. It seems Chalebi is friendly with a Long Island man named Mark Broxmeyer, who is in the real estate business, and who also is chairman of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and who also happens to be a member of the board of trustees of Hofstra University. Through whatever association it was, Broxmeyer apparently arranged for Chalebi to give a lecture about Iraq yesterday at Hofstra. An hour before that, Chalebi spoke to the media in Mineola about the great historic homeland to which he would like to return."

Lautenberg Picked in New Jersey; Familiar and Beloved Face for Jews,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Oct. 7, 2002
"The Senate’s minyan could soon welcome a familiar face. Former Sen. Frank Lautenberg was named Oct. 1 to replace Sen. Robert Torricelli as the Democratic candidate in New Jersey. Lautenberg, 78, is now expected to face Republican Douglas Forrester in the Nov. 5 election. Lautenberg, who served three terms in the Senate from 1982 to 2000, cleared a major legal hurdle to his candidacy Monday, when the U.S. Supreme Court, without comment, upheld a New Jersey decision that allowed his name to be placed on the ballot ... [Local Democratic Party chairman Ben] Dworkin believes Jews will give their 'overwhelmin' support to Lautenberg because of his positions on Israel and on domestic issues such as the environment, gun control and abortion rights ... A staunch supporter of Israel, Lautenberg has actively embraced Judaism and Jewish causes. In 1974, at age 50, he became general chair of the United Jewish Appeal, the youngest person to hold the title. Lautenberg 'has a long history of standing in the right place to support the strongest U.S.-Israel relationship,' said Lonny Kaplan, a former president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee who is involved in New Jersey politics ... . Also of importance to the Jewish community was Lautenberg’s work to assist immigrants, resulting in a 1990 bill requiring immigration officials to take into account historical persecution when judging an applicant’s refugee status. The Lautenberg Amendment allowed some 350,000 to 400,000 Jews from the former Soviet Union to gain entry into the United States without having to prove they were individually persecuted."

Hawking for Israel. South Florida reps push for war. But who are they pushing for?,
New Times (Florida), September 26, 2002
"Bashing Bush With a manner strongly reminiscent of fellow Brooklyn native John McEnroe arguing a line call, Robert Wexler has made himself one of the nation's loudest critics of President Bush. The liberal congressman from Boca Raton has made more than 100 appearances on cable television shows during the past two years, debating with Bill O'Reilly, Bob Novak, Pat Buchanan, and other conservative carnival barkers. He's attacked Bush on the environment, prescription drugs, corporate scandals, tax cuts for the rich, and the issue that first put him on the TV map: the president's 2000 election tactics ... So when Wexler appeared on CNN's TalkBack Live September 4 to discuss the president's bull rush to invade Iraq, we might have expected to finally hear a South Florida Democrat vociferously attack the ill-conceived plan ... But Wexler instead told host Arthel Neville that war on Iraq is a swell idea. "Well, I support the president's stated goal, which is a regime change in Iraq," the congressman proclaimed. "And I agree with the president that Saddam Hussein has to go' ... Wexler isn't a new convert to Bush -- he's just an old loyalist to Israel, a country that, along with a powerful Washington, D.C., lobbying group called the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), is pushing the war on Iraq with a vengeance. In essence, the Israeli lobby is urging big brother America to come out, flex its military muscles, and make the Israel-American alliance the dominant power in the Middle East. An orthodox Jew, Wexler has always been a Zionist hard-liner and has received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from pro-Israel interests during the past six years. And he's picked up a big stick for the fight against Iraq. A member of the House committee on international relations, lately he's been spending an inordinate amount of time traveling around the country and the world promoting Israel and the war on Hussein ... Broward County's own Jewish Democrat in Congress, Rep. Peter Deutsch, is another near-fanatical, pro-Israel politician who expects to vote for military action in Iraq and has publicly backed it ... The Washington, D.C.-based Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel has put both Deutsch and Wexler in its 'Hall of Shame' for their pro-Israel voting records. Powerful lobbying groups like the American Jewish Congress and AIPAC have 'hijacked the agenda' with millions of dollars in campaign contributions and powerful backers, alleges JPPI founder Josh Ruebner, adding that politicians like Wexler are 'representing the government of Israel, absolutely. Most American Jewish members of Congress are guilty of that.'"

What Would Happen If Armenians Were Expelled From Krasnodar,
by Rouben Hayrapetian, Azg Armenian Daily (Armenia), May 31, 2002
"Russian nationalists admit their complete helplessness to fight against Jews. They know that out of 7 billionaires in Russia 5 are Jews. The wife of the sixth, Azeri Vagit Alekperov is said to be a Jew and all of them made their fortunes not by producing something, but taking hold of the Russian national wealth-crud[e] oil and non-ferrous metals and selling it to the West. Nothing is changed when they are called Jew mug, nothing. The point is that according to some sources the mother of governor Tkachov is also Jew, though I do not have enough grounds to insist on it, but many steps of the governor could be explained by this fact. Let us recall that the leaders of the October Revolution in 1917 were all Jews, who built a new Russia by ruthlessly destroying Russian nobility, professional military and Orthodox Christians. Now there are wonderful conditions in Russia to plunder the country making Armenians, Azeris, Kurds and other minorities the scapegoat. By the way, chief of migration department in the administration of governor Tkachov is a pureblooded Jew."

A Special Treat An Interview with Henry Makow, Ph.D. Author, Inventor, Intellectual, Bankindex, June 20, 2002
"I am a 52 year-old Canadian. I was born in Switzerland, of Polish Jewish holocaust survivors who immigrated to Canada when I was a baby ... I discovered the elite conspiracy just six months ago when I asked the question: Why would the establishment promote a philosophy (feminism) that renounces femininity and alienates women from men? That's when I discovered that the world is run by a relatively small network of very rich people that views the rest of us as a threat and encumbrance ... This cartel realized that this state of affairs was unsustainable so it took over the governments of most countries. Our politicians are puppets. When they get out of line, as John Kennedy did, they are shot. The cartel plans to secure its domination on a global scale through the New World Order, the UN, IMF and all the institutions of 'world governance ... It appears that the Rothschilds are at the heart of it. Their dominance of world finance and enterprise was well known in the Nineteenth Century. It has not disappeared."

Alabama ousts governor, a Christian right advocate,
by Larry Brook, The Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, November 6, 1998
"The Christian right was dealt a setback as Alabama voters ousted Gov. Fob James during Tuesday's election. James was defeated by Lt Gov. Don Siegelman, a Democrat, 58 percent to 42 percent. The race was closely watched by conservative Christian groups because of James' outspoken views on church-state issues. Those views received little debate during the campaign, because Siegelman quickly and relentlessly latched onto one popular issue -- a state lottery for education -- quashing discussion of other issues. During James' term, he vocally defended a county judge who had Christian clergy open court sessions with prayers, and who displayed the Ten Commandments in the courtroom as a sign of his personal commitment to God ... Siegelman's victory gives Alabama a Jewish First Lady. Siegelman, who is Catholic, is married to the former Lori Allen, who grew up in Birmingham. The Siegelmans have two children, and attend Montgomery's Agudath Israel, a Conservative congregation. Dana Siegelman celebrated her bat mitzvah in February. Lori Siegelman shies away from the public spotlight, but was the inspiration for strong drunk-driving laws after she was seriously injured 14 years ago by a drunk driver while her husband was secretary of state. As for James, he and his wife, Bobbie, also were known as passionate Christian Zionists. At the 1995 inauguration, a rabbi from Jerusalem blew the shofar and recited the Ten Commandments, another personal friend from Israel gave an invocation entirely in Hebrew, and the governor's cousin sang 'Hatikvah' the Israeli national anthem] accompanied by the Montgomery Symphony."
ALSO: Governor Siegelman Signs Bill Supporting Israel, Deep South Jewish Voice, January-August 2002, "Israel has received a unanimous vote of support from the state government of Alabama. On April 4, Governor Don Siegelman signed a resolution that unanimously passed the Alabama Legislature last month. Lenora Pate, who drafted the resolution, patterned it after a 1943 resolution in which Alabama called for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. It is believed this was the first public support by any state legislature for a Jewish homeland."

Maureen Dowd: 'Influential Jews' Pushing Iraq War,
Newsmax, Monday, Oct. 7, 2002
"New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd was on the hot seat Monday morning for a paragraph buried deep in her Sunday column where she seemed to blame 'influential Jewish conservatives' for persuading President Bush to go to war in Iraq. 'Influential Jewish conservatives inside and outside the administration have been fierce in supporting a war on Saddam, thinking it could help Israel by scrambling the Middle East map and encouraging democracy,' contended the Irish Catholic liberal. Dowd's suggestion that Jews in the Bush administration were putting Israel's interests over the U.S.'s raised eyebrows on the 'Imus in the Morning' program. Asked about the Times columnist's 'influential Jewish conservatives' reference, Newsweek's Howard Fineman, a Dowd soulmate, insisted, 'Maureen Dowd doesn't have an anti-Semitic bone in her body.' But moments later, when NBC Pentagon reporter Jim Miklaszewski was asked to explain what he thought Dowd meant by the remark, he said she was talking about a 'what many would call a cabal within the administration.'"

She's Baaaaack! The Duchess of Dumb, Jackie Goldberg, is up to her old tricks in Sacramento,
Los Angeles New Times, May 16, 2002
"Last time I checked in on our embarrassing political progeny, the former Duchess of the 13th City Council District, Jackie Goldberg, hater of all that is middle class, and, officially, the stupidest well-spoken person I know, I was light of heart because she had gone to Sacramento. As a state assemblywoman with only one vote among 120 legislators, I reasoned, Jackie's hatred for and conspiring against those who disagree with her narrow worldview would have less negative effect than when she was one of 15 councilmembers. Now I pray that I was right, because Jackie's gestation period is over and she is spawning a troubling brood in the statehouse ... I have long believed Goldberg to be a pathological liar. Most of the media forgive her because she so loves the downtrodden. She made a name for herself by belittling developers, an attitude the media loves. But then she quietly took more than $30,000 in campaign contributions from developers of the parking structure at Highland and Hollywood. Now the entire project is failing due to its absurd $10 parking fee and public disinterest in her beloved mall."

Deal Breakers,
Prospect, March 11, 2002
"Today, [The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations] employs a staff of only six and has an annual budget of less than a million dollars, but its clout belies its modest size. The Forward, which every year publishes a list of the 50 most influential Jews, this year ranked [director Malcolm] Hoenlein first. 'The most influential private citizen in American foreign policy-making,' a former high-ranking U.S. diplomat was quoted as saying of him ... The activities of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee have raised similar concerns. AIPAC and the Presidents Conference work together closely; all of the members of the conference, in fact, sit on AIPAC's executive committee (which is distinct from its board of directors) ... Most important of all, AIPAC distributes money. Lots of it. It does this not as an organization -- despite its name, AIPAC is not a political action committee -- but through its members. The scale of their giving can be glimpsed at the Web site of the Federal Election Commission (www.fec.gov), where contributions are listed by individual. Between 1997 and 2001, the 46 members of AIPAC's board together gave well in excess of $3 million, or more than $70,000 apiece. At least seven gave more than $100,000, and one -- David Steiner, a New Jersey real-estate developer -- gave more than $1 million. (Much of this funding goes to political parties and other 'soft money' recipients who are not subject to federal election donation limits.) And that's just the board. Many of AIPAC's 60,000 members contribute funds as well, in sums ranging from a hundred dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Much of this money is distributed through a network of pro-Israel PACs. Often, when an individual candidate is favored, these PACs will organize multiple fundraisers in different parts of the country."

Israeli Resolve, U.S. Impatience Put Jews On Collision Course with Bush, [Jewish] Forward, April 12, 2002
"The [Jewish] community's main pro-Israel umbrella group, the 52-member Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, announced this week that it was organizing an April 15 rally in Washington supporting both Jerusalem's right to defend itself and the Bush administration's fight against terrorism. In addition, several prominent Jewish organizations have issued statements objecting to the administration's decision to pressure Israel, while also praising Bush for his harsh criticisms of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians ... Washington insiders from both sides of the aisle said that in addition to wanting to keep his pro-Israel political base happy, Bush is determined not to repeat his father's mistake of fighting the Jewish community in a political war over Israel. In regular meetings with Jewish leaders, administration officials have reiterated Bush's unflinching support for Israel and his position that the Jewish state has a right to defend itself against suicide attacks. 'Karl Rove is so focused on that,' said one Democrat with ties to several Jewish organizations, referring to Bush's top political advisor. 'He doesn't care about reaching out to Jews as a constituency. He just doesn't want to turn on the Jewish money spigot to the Democrats and energize them. He doesn't want to create a problem with them. And he gets that the one way you get a problem with Jews is by going after Israel.'"

Why Bush Dances to [Israeli prime minister Ariel] Sharon's Tune, Toronto Sun, April 14, 2002
"Who really is running America's Mideast policy? Last week, the astounded world saw the grotesque spectacle of President George W. Bush pleading in vain with Ariel Sharon, leader of a nation of only 6.3 million people which receives almost $5 billion in annual U.S. aid, to cease laying waste the Occupied West Bank. Ignoring worldwide condemnation and demands from the UN Security Council, Sharon ordered his armour, much of it American-supplied, to accelerate shooting up and bulldozing Palestinian towns, refugee camps and all symbols of Palestinian identity or statehood. Twenty years ago, Sharon invaded Lebanon, 'to crush Palestinian terrorism.' His big guns and warplanes blasted Beirut for three weeks, killing 17,000 civilians. Today, he remains determined to hold Arab lands Israel conquered in 1967 and to destroy any hopes or vestiges of a viable Palestinian state. President Bush and senior aides Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell were left looking weak, indecisive, and inept ... While the rest of the world condemned Israel's invasion and destruction of the Palestinian ghettos, not a peep was heard from the White House, Congress or America's media about Israel's violation of U.S. law in using U.S.-supplied armour and warplanes against civilians. Nor about Israel's violation of the Geneva Conventions and other international laws. There were no protests when Israel's Shimon Peres described massacres of Palestinian civilians by Israeli soldiers. Nor even a tut-tut when Sharon named to his cabinet a fanatical right-wing general who advocates ethnic cleansing of Palestinians - the same crime for which the U.S. pursued Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic ... How could Bush, only a few weeks ago, still bathing in the bogus glory of a military "triumph" against a few thousand medieval tribesman in Afghanistan, be so suddenly made to look foolish and impotent by events in the Mideast? Simply put, Sharon's right-wing Likud party has come to dominate U.S. Mideast policy through its powerful American lobby, which 'guides' Congress. Under pressure from the Israel lobby, 89 out of 100 senators and at least 280 congressmen recently demanded Bush give Sharon carte blanche to crush Palestine. As the Israeli writer Uri Avnery wryly noted, if the Israel lobby gave orders to repeal the Ten Commandments, Congress would vote in favour. America's media is strongly pro-Israel and averse to dissenting views. A coterie of hawkish, Israel-first neo-conservatives dominates media opinion-making and the Pentagon, leading the charge for a war against Iraq, Iran, and Syria. One even helped to write Bush's foolish "axis of evil" speech. Tight U.S. mid-term elections are approaching. Bush does not want to anger American Jewish voters who believe Israel is in mortal danger."

No Schmooze with the Jews,
The Economist (UK), April 6, 2002,
"Forget about infirmity of purpose. The most troubling criticism of America's Middle East policy is that it is driven not by national interest but by a domestic lobby -- the Jewish lobby. This criticism is an article of faith in the Arab world. It has been whispered in European chancelleries for years. Now a respectful American pundit, Michael Lind, has tried to detail the case in a respectable British magazine, Prospect. Does the argument hold water? Without question, the Jewish lobby is enormously influential in the United States. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a legend among lobbyists, a phenomenon when it comes to lining up senators, orchestrating public opinion and arranging junkets to Israel for impressionable politicians. The Jews are not alone in lobbying their ethnic interests: everyone does it. Nor are they alone in occasionally allowing ethnic loyalties to trump the national interest. But the Jewish lobby is nevertheless unusual in several respects. It allows Jews to exercise an influence out of proportion to their mere 2% of the population. It is unusually focused on foreign affairs -- and particularly on providing Israel with the military might which it needs to survive. It also has an enormous number of allies in the media and in politics. A striking proportion of America's leading pundits are Jewish. Three of the most prominent foreign-policy hawks in the current administration, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Douglas Feith, are Jewish; so is the most prominent hawk among the Capitol Hill Democrats, Joe Lieberman. America is also far more pro-Israel than Europe. Israel receives more of America's foreign aid budget than any other country -- $3 billion a year, two-thirds of it in military grants."

Israel Finds Support in Congress,
USA Today, April 10, 2002
"Opposition to Israel's military offensive in the West Bank appears widespread — but not in the halls of Congress. As lawmakers returned to the nation's capital this week, most remained either strongly in Israel's corner or silent. There have been no calls for trade embargoes or cuts in the $2.8 billion in foreign aid that Israel gets annually from the United States. The reaction stems from goodwill toward Israel as the lone democracy in the Middle East, as well as its partnership in the war against terrorism. But Israel and its supporters also have mounted a powerful lobbying campaign on Capitol Hill ... James Zogby, head of the Arab-American Institute, said 80 members of Congress are sympathetic to the concerns of pro-Arab groups but refuse to speak publicly. He did not name one. 'Part of it comes from a perception, which is used by the people on the pro-Israel side, that there is a political price to pay,' Zogby said. "The intimidation factor is there." The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the primary pro-Israel lobbying group, does not see it that way. AIPAC says its influence stems from the strong support for Israel from Americans of all backgrounds. 'Our office has been flooded with calls in the past week from members of Congress who want to do more to show their solidarity with the Israeli people,' Rebecca Needler of AIPAC said."

Britain Jews Demand Tougher Line on Race-Hate Crimes after Attack, The Independent (UK), April 14, 2002
"Lord Goldsmith QC, the [British] Attorney General, is promising a crackdown on race-hate crimes amid increasing fears in Britain's Jewish community of an anti-semitic backlash. The move comes as the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which represents the UK's 300,000 Jews, considers a complaint to police over alleged comments made by Tom Paulin, the poet and television pundit, in an interview with an Egyptian newspaper. Mr Paulin, a lecturer at Oxford University, is quoted in Al-Ahram as saying American-born settlers in Israel 'should be shot dead. I think they are Nazis, racists, I feel nothing but hatred for them'. Earlier in the interview he is quoted as saying: 'I never believed that Israel had the right to exist at all.' He was not available for comment yesterday but has, in the past, vehemently denied accusations of anti-semitism. The Board met Lord Goldsmith, himself Jewish, only last month to complain that race-hate crimes were not being prosecuted."

As Eastern Europeans Preen for NATO, Jews Seen as Canary in a Coal Mine, JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency), March 26, 2002
"At first glance, it appeared a bit odd: An American Jewish leader addressing 10 Eastern European prime ministers at a military summit. So odd that when Rabbi Andrew Baker, international director of the American Jewish Committee, entered the NATO Aspirant Summit in Bucharest, Romania, on Monday, he asked himself, Why am I here? ... The NATO military alliance expects to add seven new member states in November. Among the criteria for candidate countries is a free market economy and various defense stipulations, but also a 'high standard in treatment of national ethnic and religious minorities' and 'shared values,' according to NATO spokesman Robert Pszczel. Enlargement is a political decision and requires approval by the parliaments of all 19 NATO member states, including two-thirds of the U.S. Senate ... The AJCommittee organized a roundtable discussion with Jewish leaders from NATO aspirant nations this week, in the shadow of the summit. The purpose, Baker said, was to put pressing Jewish issues — such as anti-Semitism, Holocaust restitution, education and commemoration — on the radar screen of political leaders who may be especially responsive while their bids for NATO entry are under consideration ... Jewish issues are among the top five areas the U.S. State Department checks when examining NATO aspirants, said Heather Conley, deputy assistant secretary for European affairs. 'To say these countries will reach a state of perfection before November is not realistic, but we can expect a commitment on educational work, and restitution,' she said.

Bloomberg Tab: $76.4M,
Yahoo!News (from Associated Press), March 30, 2002
"Billionaire Republican Michael Bloomberg spent more than $76 million of his own money to become mayor of New York City — a record for a non-presidential election in the United States. The final tally shows he spent $73.9 million during his race to defeat Democrat Mark Green [also Jewish], and $2.5 million on his transition and inaugural ceremony, according to papers filed by his campaign staff Friday. The total is up from the $74.7 million reported in January. That amounts to more than four times what Green spent, and exceeds the combined $68.9 million spent by Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Rick Lazio in the 2000 U.S. Senate race."

Costs Go Up for Bart's Escalators, Matier and Ross, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco Gate), March 31, 2002
"TAKING AIM: The heavily Democratic Greenlining Institute, a San Francisco- based coalition of minority businesses, churches and civil rights groups, has come out swinging against the nomination of [Jewish mogul] Richard Blum to the University of California Board of Regents. Seems the Greenliners are miffed that the governor didn't pick a Latino or other minority for the job -- and they're letting everybody know that Blum, Sen. Dianne Feinstein's husband, doesn't measure up. In a letter sent to their friend, Sen. John Burton, whose Rules Committee will hold Blum's confirmation hearing, representatives of 18 Greenlining groups question the multimillionaire businessman's competence and label him another 'wealthy, white male.' And that's just for openers. The Greenliners also blast Gov. Gray Davis for failing to appoint regents who reflect the state's diversity, noting that the majority 'have been wealthy, white contributors to the governor's multimillion-dollar war chest.' Greenliners say Blum is cut from the same cloth, having contributed $75,000 to Davis already, and 'is likely to contribute substantially more in the coming years, including any presidential race the governor may enter.'"

The Purge of Joe Sobran and the Axis of Evil. How Letting the Neo-Cons Gain Control Has Brought Us to the Brink of War, Pravda, February 7, 2002
"'Neo-cons … now insist on massive extensions of the warfare state. [They] demand … war to topple the head of … foreign government[s] unfriendly to Israel, while denouncing right-wing isolationism [and] libertarianism.' This can be seen in what has happened with the men who led the charge against Joe Sobran. Norman Podhoretz, of course, is still the war-mongering imperialist swine he always was. David Frum is now writing the speeches that George the Second is using to take us into war. Alan Dershowitz is now, in the words of CBS, 'tell[ing] Correspondent Mike Wallace that torture is inevitable.' Richard Cohen is demanding that Oracle CEO Larry Ellis' plan for a national ID card be implemented And the whole crew of corrupt Israelites is still spewing into our society the garbage they were spewing a decade prior, only today there is even less criticism of them than the little that could still be heard in 1990. Joe Sobran advised us back then to: '[T]ake a quick inventory of the commentators who constantly defend Israel: Podhoretz, Rosenthal, Dershowitz, Martin Peretz, George Will, Mortimer Zuckerman, Morton Kondracke, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Kenneth Adelman, Amos Perlmutter, Eric Breindal, Cal Thomas, Max Lerner, Ben Wattenberg, Charles Krauthammer, William Safire, and Fred Barnes.' Not only are those names still with us, but they are in power, having snuck in under the curtain of the Bush administration. An Israeli spy like Richard Perle, who in the 1970s was dismissed from government service for passing top secret data on to the Israeli embassy, now sits on the Defense Policy Review Board -- and was considered as a candidate for the post of Secretary of Defense! America is no longer concerned about Israeli infiltration of the government -- instead, the American government has become a colonial outpost of the Zionist terror-state!"

Conservative Jewish Groups Have Clout,
Los Angeles Times, March 10, 2002
"The American Israel Public Affairs Committee focuses on Congress. Long regarded as one of the most effective foreign-policy lobbies in Washington, AIPAC has an annual budget of $19.5 million, a staff of 130, and some 60,000 members. From its office near Capitol Hill, it researches issues, tracks legislation and lobbies Congress. Most of all, it gives money--lots of it. Between 1997 and 2001, the 46 members on AIPAC's board together gave political candidates and parties well in excess of $3 million, or an average of more than $70,000 apiece. Many of its members give money as well. Much of this money is distributed through a network of pro-Israel political action committees. Recipients include many key members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, from Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer, Charles E. Schumer and Paul Wellstone to GOP Sens. Christopher S. Bond, J. Dennis Hastert and Trent Lott. It is not surprising, then, that Congress tends to go along with whatever AIPAC wants. What AIPAC wants, meanwhile, is determined by its wealthy and powerful board of directors, which is united in its commitment to a strong Israel and to securing unwavering U.S. support for it. Since Sharon became prime minister, AIPAC has steadfastly backed him. With the United States coming under strong international pressure to rein in both Israelis and Palestinians, AIPAC has pressed the Bush administration to crack down on Arafat--and leave Sharon alone. Thus, last fall, when U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was preparing a new peace initiative with Zinni serving as a special envoy, AIPAC sent a memo to its members in the field, urging them to meet with their congressional representatives and press them to keep the administration off Israel's back. The memo, notes a former AIPAC official, was part of 'an aggressive campaign to get AIPAC members to call on their congressmen to put pressure on the administration not to send Zinni to the region. Their emphasis was clearly to try to minimize any effort by the administration to say Israel must exercise restraint.' That effort has largely succeeded."

Israeli Press, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (from IAP News), October 3, 2001
"An acrimonious argument erupted during the Israeli cabinet weekly session last week between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his foreign Minister Shimon Peres during which Sharon reportedly yelled at Peres, saying 'don't worry about American pressure, we control America.' According to Israel radio (in hebrew) Kol Yisrael, Peres warned Sharon Wednesday that refusing to heed incessant American requests for a cease-fire with the Palestinians would endanger Israeli interests and 'turn the US against us.' At this point, a furious Sharon reportedly turned toward Peres, saying 'every time we do something you tell me Americans will do this and will do that. I want to tell you something very clear, don't worry about American pressure on Israel, we, the Jewish people control America, and the Americans know it.' The radio said Peres and other cabinet ministers warned Sharon against saying what he said in public because 'it would cause us a public relations disaster.'"

Spying On America, Newsmax, January 16, 2002
"In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the FBI reportedly stumbled on an espionage ring that had penetrated the wiretapping system of U.S. law enforcement. Fox News Channel reported that the FBI was holding nearly 100 Israeli citizens with direct ties to foreign military, criminal and intelligence services. In a follow-up to these reports, the FBI did not deny that such actions had been taken. However, FBI spokesman Paul Bresson would not answer specific questions on the reported espionage ... Despite the extensive denials by Amdocs and Comverse, the curious response by the FBI has raised more questions than answers. Sources inside Capitol Hill are investigating the allegations and made no comments on the allegations of espionage at this time. However, the demands for answers continued to grow outside political circles. 'If national security is the overriding issue in the FBI's treatment of this case, the correct response to your questions should have been 'Sorry, we have no comment at this time,''' said Douglas Brown of the Nathan Hale Institute. 'Of course, the most reassuring response would have been 'There's no truth to the stories,' but apparently the bureau can't say that. Maybe the spokesperson is well-informed?' questioned Brown. 'Something is up. One of the things that gave the Fox report added credibility was 'investigators within the DEA, INS and FBI have all told Fox News that to pursue or even suggest Israeli spying through Comverse is considered career suicide.'"

Carl Cameron Investigates, Part 2, Fox News, December 14, 2001
"Last time we reported on the approximately 60 Israelis who had been detained in connection with the Sept. 11 terrorism investigation. Carl Cameron reported that U.S. investigators suspect that some of these Israelis were spying on Arabs in this country, and may have turned up information on the planned terrorist attacks back in September that was not passed on. Tonight, in the second of four reports on spying by Israelis in the U.S., we learn about an Israeli-based private communications company, for whom a half-dozen of those 60 detained suspects worked. American investigators fear information generated by this firm may have fallen into the wrong hands and had the effect of impeded the Sept. 11 terror inquiry ... Most directory assistance calls, and virtually all call records and billing in the U.S. are done for the phone companies by Amdocs Ltd., an Israeli-based private elecommunications company. Amdocs has contracts with the 25 biggest phone companies in America, and more worldwide ... In recent years, the FBI and other government agencies have investigated Amdocs more than once. The firm has repeatedly and adamantly denied any security breaches or wrongdoing. But sources tell Fox News that in 1999, the super secret national security agency, headquartered in northern Maryland, issued what's called a Top Secret sensitive compartmentalized information report, TS/SCI, warning that records of calls in the United States were getting into foreign hands – in Israel, in particular." [Note: This article (and four others by Cameron) were censored from Fox News' web site within the week. See Justin Raimondo for an article, and links, about it all. In an Orwellian sentence, the link to Fox said "This story no longer exists" until that too was taken down.  See Israel National News' article about Cameron's story]

Carl Cameron Investigates, Part 3, Fox News, December 14, 2001
"BRIT HUME, HOST: Last time we reported on an Israeli-based company called Amdocs Ltd. that generates the computerized records and billing data for nearly every phone call made in America. As Carl Cameron reported, U.S. investigators digging into the 9/11 terrorist attacks fear that suspects may have been tipped off to what they were doing by information leaking out of Amdocs. In tonight's report, we learn that the concern about phone security extends to another company, founded in Israel, that provides the technology that the U.S. government uses for electronic eavesdropping. Here is Carl Cameron's third report. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The company is Comverse Infosys, a subsidiary of an Israeli-run private telecommunications firm, with offices throughout the U.S. It provides wiretapping equipment for law enforcement. Here's how wiretapping works in the U.S. Every time you make a call, it passes through the nation's elaborate network of switchers and routers run by the phone companies. Custom computers and software, made by companies like Comverse, are tied into that network to intercept, record and store the wiretapped calls, and at the same time transmit them to investigators ... Adding to the suspicions is the fact that in Israel, Comverse works closely with the Israeli government, and under special programs, gets reimbursed for up to 50 percent of its research and development costs by the Israeli Ministry of Industry and Trade. But investigators within the DEA, INS and FBI have all told Fox News that to pursue or even suggest Israeli spying through Comverse is considered career suicide." [Note: This article (and four others by Cameron) were censored from Fox News' web site within the week. See Justin Raimondo for an article, and links, about it all. In an Orwellian sentence, the link to Fox said "This story no longer exists" til that too was taken down. See Israel National News' article about Cameon's censored pieces]

Senators Urge Bush Not to Hamper Israel,
New York Times (posted at freerepublic.com), November 17, 2001
"In a letter to President Bush today, 89 senators urged him not to restrain Israel from retaliating fully against Palestinian violence and to express his solidarity publicly with Israel soon. The six-paragraph letter was intended to prevent Secretary of State Colin L. Powell from including direct or indirect criticism of Israel and from offering inducements to the Palestinians in a speech he will give at the University of Louisville on Monday. 'There is constant concern about the administration's wavering," said Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, who is one of the signatories ... The State Department was unusually critical of Israel last month, demanding the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank, which the department said contributed to an escalation in violence. It also deplored the killing by Israeli soldiers of numerous Palestinian civilians during a weekend of violence and called on Israel to ensure that its armed forces exercise 'greater discipline and restraint.' Without referring to those statements, the senators' letter made clear that such a position was unacceptable to them. 'The American people would never excuse us for not going after the terrorists with all our strength and might,' the letter said."

Foreign Secretary of Mexico Jorge Castenada Gutman Accused of Disloyalty to Nation, La Voz de Aztlan, October 2001
Of particular note here is a list of of 50 Jewish names in a "Partial List of High Level Mexican Officials of Jewish Descent."

Jewish Scholar to Lead Think Tank,
Washington Times, October 29, 2001
"The new head of a Washington think tank specializing in religion and public policy is a Jewish scholar who has specialized in Islamic history. Hillel Fradkin, who Thursday becomes president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center here, said programs on Muslims in society will be one of his priorities ... Mr. Fradkin, who holds degrees in government and Islamic thought from Cornell and the University of Chicago, replaces Elliott Abrams, center president since 1996. Mr. Abrams joined the White House national security council as a human rights and religious liberty analyst."

Jewish Politicians,
Political Graveyard (A partial list -- 327 people -- of Jewish politicans in American history)

Jews in American Politics, The Solomon Project
"A listing of those noted Jews from American political history who are featured among the hundreds of brief biographical sketches included in the book [Jews in American Politics], as well as those that have been added after the book's publication." [The listing is partial, and ongoing]

The First Jewish Governor,
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, March 8, 2002
"No, [California governor] Gray Davis is not an Anglo marrano, a hidden, closeted Jew. He is, on paper, a Catholic, but his political career has been shaped, and largely financed — as much as any statewide politician including our two Jewish women senators — by the Los Angeles Jewish community. Where did it all start? Carmen Warshaw, the former Democratic national committeewoman for California and major donor to Jewish causes, claims she first singled out the lean, ambitious young man more than three decades ago. From the beginning, she could see two overwhelming characteristics that define Davis to this day — a driving, cold-blooded ambition and the calculating smarts to achieve it. The Jewish community, Warshaw suggests, represented the primary vehicle for Davis’ strategy. 'His only interest was money,' she recalls. 'He played golf all the time at Hillcrest. You saw him all the time. He was known as the man who came to cocktails and didn’t stay for dinner.' Davis’ fixation on the Jewish community was a natural one, says one former top aide. As an aide to former Gov. Jerry Brown, Davis had been introduced to many of the major rainmakers of the Democratic Party, a considerable proportion of them Jews from the worlds of real estate, law and entertainment. When he finally won elective office, it was from a heavily Jewish Westside district that normally would send a landsman to Sacramento. But, Davis made sure not to be stranger to the community. 'Gray went to more bar mitzvahs and weddings than most rabbis,' recalls this aide. 'He didn’t do it because he was Jewish — he isn’t — but because that’s where the money was.' And that’s where much of Davis’ money still is."

Will Campaign Finance Reform Help or Hinder Jewish Influence?,
JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency), March 21, 2002
"When Bill Clinton won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1996, Monte Friedkin was standing at his side at the Democratic convention. It was a powerful statement about the Florida businessman´s influence as the former finance chair of the Democratic National Committee who also happened to be the national chairman of the National Jewish Democratic Council. And in 2000, Mel Sembler, a shopping center developer from Florida who was the honorary chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition, served as the finance chair of the Republican National Committee and was a major supporter of George W. Bush´s run for the presidency. Today he serves as the U.S. ambassador to Italy. Now the U.S. Congress has passed a sweeping campaign finance reform bill, but it is too soon to know just how such an overhaul will alter the political influence of the Jewish community. The impact of large Jewish donors and fund raisers — which both the Democratic and Republican parties have relied upon heavily for tens of millions of dollars — is clearly going to change. Still most experts think that Jewish interests will fare well because the community is politically well- organized and can adapt to change."


British Magazine Raising a Specter of  'Zionist Lobby,'
[Jewish] Forward, January 18, 2002
"In what some see as a pattern since September 11, a leading British weekly has raised the specter of Jewish control over the media and government. The cover story of the January 14 edition of the New Statesman, a respected liberal weekly, is headlined 'A Kosher Conspiracy?' and features a gold Star of David appearing to pierce a Union Jack. The story purports to investigate whether there is a 'Zionist' plan to sway the British press to the side of Israel and to minimize Palestinian grievances. It also assesses the extent to which Jews influence British politics. 'That there is a Zionist lobby and that it is rich, potent, and effective goes largely unquestioned on the left,' writes Dennis Sewell. 'Big Jewry, like big tobacco, is seen as one of life's givens.' Journalists who dare to speak out against the 'Zionist lobby,' Mr. Sewell adds, are harassed, threatened and eventually muted. As an example, the article points to Robert Fisk, the pro-Arab correspondent of the Independent, a left-leaning British daily. According to the article, Mr. Fisk 'complains that he has been the victim of an anonymous smear campaign seeking to link him with the notoriously anti-Semitic historian David Irving.' At the center of this 'Zionist lobby,' the article alleges, is a network of individuals and organizations coordinated from the Israeli embassy in London and 'greased' by the profits made by a sinister arms trader named Shlomo Zabludowicz, an Auschwitz survivor with a Finnish passport who died in 1994. Key figures in the conspiracy, according to the authors, include Conrad Black, the owner of the conservative British publications Daily Telegraph and Spectator as well as the Jerusalem Post, and his wife, 'the enthusiastic Zionist columnist' Barbara Amiel. As for the Zionist effect on British politics, the New Statesman article reports that a recent meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Yasser Arafat was 'no more than a public relations exercise designed to placate the Arab world. It served to disguise Blair's support for the Zionist project and his role as Ariel Sharon's closest ally in Europe. Little of this has been reported in the mainstream media.' The New Statesman article is only the latest example of what some say has become a wide expression of anti-Semitism in Britain since September 11."

On the Sidelines of the United Nations. Jewish Groups Work the Scene, JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency), November 20, 2001
"When scores of world leaders descended on New York in mid-November for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly session, it created more than just traffic problems. It also created an opportunity for Jewish groups to pursue their 'foreign policy,' pressing the interests of Israel and Diaspora Jewish communities in meetings with representatives from around the world ... While Washington renews its push for Mideast peace and Jews and Israel weigh how to respond, American Jewish groups like the AJCommittee forge ahead with foreign policy of their own. From the Jewish side, the aim is to drum up global support for Israel and protect vulnerable Jewish communities throughout the Diaspora. The nations sitting across the table are seeking something equally intangible — Jewish clout."

Did Clinton 'Scapegoat' Jews? The Jewish Week [posted here at www.jonathanpollard.org -- article cached at google.com],
February 23, 20001, p. 1
"The ABC News zipper in Times Square said it succinctly: 'Clinton Cites Jewish Pressure for [Marc] Rich Pardon. That electronic headline flashing Monday over Broadway apparently was the main message an ABC newsman had distilled from reading former President Bill Clinton’s op-ed, published in the previous day’s New York Times, explaining his last-minute, controversial decision to pardon fugitive billionaire financier Marc Rich and ex-partner Pinchas Green. By citing Jewish influence as a key factor in his pardon, Clinton has created an extraordinary dilemma in the Jewish community. And it has prompted criticism from both Jewish adversaries and supporters, some of whom fear he has raised to a new level the problematic public perception of undue Jewish influence in the White House. In some cases, the Rich controversy appears to be forcing some longtime Jewish Clinton supporters to either keep silent, or be forced to choose between defending the ex-president or protecting Jewish interests."

How Mexico's Immigration Stance Shifted.
Washington Post, August 28, 2001
"Jorge G. Castaneda, is Mexico's foreign minister and [Andres] Rozental is one of his key troubleshooters. Together, they have played leading roles in engaging the United States and Mexico in their most serious negotiations in decades aimed at reforming their immigration policies ... Castaneda, 48, and Rozental, 56, share the same mother -- a Russian immigrant to Mexico -- and deep understanding of the United States ... Castaneda, whose father was also foreign minister, is the intellectual author of much of [Mexican President Vicente] Fox's thinking about the world ... Rozental's dual role has led to questions about whether his work on behalf of the government is benefiting his consulting clients. Rozental said he has kept the two completely separate ... 'The combination of the two of them is unique. There is no other person or team in any other country in the world who knows us [Americans] as well as these two people,' said Demetrios Papademetriou, an immigration specialist in Washington. 'I have never been confused about how close the two half-brothers are. It's clear to me that when I speak to one of them, I am speaking to them both.' In his private office overlooking the heart of Mexico City, Rozental agreed: 'We are each other's best friend,' he said. 'I don't think many people know how close we are.'"

Bonds of Affection. Multinational Monitor, April 1988
"In the mid-1970s, the Teamsters Union, under fire for its alleged ties to organized crime, was looking to brush up its public image. As part of that effort, the Teamsters became a major purchaser of Israeli government bonds, eventually investing more than $26 million in the low-interest securities. The bonds had 'great PR value' for the Teamsters, an Israel bonds spokesman told reporter Steven Brill. '[The Teamsters] are people looking for respectability and this is one way to get it.' In his book about the union, Brill described a 1975 dinner held in Cleveland to honor Jackie Presser [who was Jewish], the Teamster's President- to-be, for his extraordinary work in supporting Israel. 'Just about everyone who was anyone in Cleveland politics or business turned out,' Brill wrote. 'At the dinner, Israeli Ambassador Simcha Dinitz inducted the guest of honor into the Prime Minister's Club, a group made up of people who personally (or in Presser's case, through his union) bought more than $25,000 worth of bonds.' At one point, the Teamsters owned more than a quarter of all Israel bonds held by U.S. unions. The union, however, was not alone in its fondness for the notes. Despite below-market yields and unusually high risk, some of America's largest unions, pension funds and major corporations have collectively loaned billions of dollars to the Israeli government. Israel's violent repression of the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza--and the threat the uprising poses to Israel's shaky economy--appears not to have affected investor confidence. Nathan Zirkin, comptroller for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, told the Multinational Monitor that his union 'absolutely' plans to continue purchasing Israel bonds, despite the repression in the occupied territories. 'The Palestinians didn't have a damn thing until Israel came in,' Zirkin said."

We're in the Money.
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. August 17, 2001
"Despite a tough economic year that prompted more than $550 million in line-item vetoes by Governor Gray Davis, the new California state budget allocates almost $10 million dollars to Jewish organizations. With a range of programs from pediatric immunizations to materials for community colleges suffering last-minute cuts by the executive office, even political insiders say they are surprised by the success of Jewish-backed causes when it came to securing funds. 'I’m sort of amazed, frankly,' says Howard Welinsky, a board member of the Jewish Public Affairs Committee, the political affairs arm of The Jewish Federation. 'I’m amazed that the legislature and the governor allowed so many of these requests when so many other areas of funding got cut. The Jewish community did pretty well' ... The Jewish community’s biggest budget winner — as usual — was the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance ... Other recipients of state funds include the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, which received $750,000 towards the $70 million dollar renovation of its Pacific Heights building. The Jewish Museum San Francisco also received $750,000, money — which will be used to finish a new facility near Yerba Buena Gardens in the downtown area. The Breed Street Shul, Los Angeles’ oldest synagogue and a historic landmark, received $500,000 for preservation and expansion of community services in its Boyle Heights neighborhood. The Skirball Cultural Center received $400,000 towards construction of a new exhibition hall. San Francisco Jewish Vocational Services (SFJVS), a Federation beneficiary agency, received $200,000 for a new training and employment center for émigrés in the downtown area. YouTHink, an educational program for public schools, scored $250,000 to expand its curriculum of arts projects that inspire discussions of current issues among children. Political insiders credit the Jewish community’s success to a combination of savvy political lobbying and a roster of projects with strong track records and broad social appeal.

First Israeli Astronaut to Blast Off in May. Jerusalem Post, August 15, 2001
"US National Aeronautics and Space Administration administrator Daniel Goldin has several times during his current visit urged Israeli leaders to promote climate research. 'You will eventually solve your problems with your neighbors,' he told Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, 'but in 30 years, global warming will have a tremendous effect on the region, and temperatures only a few degrees higher will turn fertile land into desert.' Goldin, who came to promote wide-ranging cooperation between NASA and the Israel Space Agency, also officially announced that Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon would be launched into space on a US space mission on May 23, 2002. It was also agreed that NASA and Israeli satellites could continue to be launched at no cost on the various US space shuttles ... Goldin emphasized the possibilities of integrating Israel into the European space center and having it join the exclusive club of countries participating in the international space station, along with involving Israeli research and researchers in the station ... The NASA chief, who has held the position for 10 years, is Jewish, with family in Israel, and has visited here numerous times since 1967."

AIPAC Claims Victory in Battle Against "Enemies of Israel."
Jewish Bulletin of Northern California. June 5, 1998
"The local branch of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is hailing a Supreme Court ruling that it believes makes it unlikely the pro-Israel lobby will have to disclose information about its membership and expenditures. Six former politicians and diplomats, all stuanch critics of U.S. policy toward Israel, have been seeking increased government regulation of AIPAC."

Dem's Delight in New Senate May Founder in DC Deadlock.
(Jewish) Forward. June 1, 2001
"Nothing symbolized the prospect of increased access more clearly than one stark demographic statistic: The 50 Democrats who make up the Senate's new majority caucus will include nine Jewish members, just shy of one-fifth. The Republican caucus includes just a single Jewish member, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Some of those Jewish Democrats will hold positions of crucial importance to Jewish activists when the Senate changes hands. Senator Carl Levin of Michigan is slated to chair the Senate Armed Services Committee, which oversees crucial areas of U.S.-Israeli military cooperation. Senator Dianne Feinstein and Senator Barbara Boxer, both of California, will chair the subcommittees dealing with domestic and international terrorism respectively on the Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees. Most observers expected little in the way of a shakeup in Middle East policy following the shift. 'We don't expect much of a change,' said Ken Bricker, spokesman of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel lobby. 'That's one of the benefits of being an organization that places so much emphasis on bipartisanship.'"

Mexicans, Jews Share Migration as a Common Link, Fox Contends.
Jewish Bulletin of Northern California. May 11, 2001
"It's mind-blowing," said [Barry] Jacobs, who serves as the AJCommittee's liaison to the Mexican-Jewish community. "It was an incredible honor that [Mexican President Vicente Fox] flew up [to Washington DC] for [the American Jewish Congress's annual dinner]."

The Role of Politics in Contemporary Anti-Semitism.
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. September 15, 1999
"That Jews control a disproportionately large share of the Russian economy and Russian media certainly has some basis in fact. Between 50 and 80 percent of the Russian economy is said to be in Jewish hands, with the influence of the five Jews among the eight individuals commonly referred to as 'oligarchs' particularly conspicuous. (An oligarch is understood to be a member of a small group that exercises control in a government. The five oligarchs of Jewish descent are Boris Berezovsky, Mikhail Friedman, Vladimir Gusinsky, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Alexander Smolensky. The other oligarchs are Vagit Alekperov, Vladimir Potanin, and Rem Vyakhirev.) Perhaps the most famous (and simultaneously the most infamous) of the oligarchs is Boris Berezovsky. In common with most of the other Jewish oligarchs, Berezovsky controls industries in three critical areas: the extraction and sale of a major natural resource, such as oil, as a source of great wealth; a large bank (useful in influencing industry and transferring assets abroad); and several major media outlets (useful for exerting influence and attacking rivals). He also controls a significant share of the Aeroflot airline and the Moscow automobile industry."

In Russia, Suggestions of Cultural Change for the Better, by Jewish columnist William Safire. Naples Daily News [from the New York Times], August 3, 1998
"[Yevgeny Primakov] adopted that name because the one he was born with - Finkelstein - was hardly useful to a KGB espionage agent under cover as a Pravda correspondent in the Arab Middle East. Curiously, the sensitivity of many other Russian politicians to their Jewish parentage is changing. This was dramatized in the last presidential campaign when the reformer Grigory Yavlinsky pointed to the nutty nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and said, "Both of us are half Jewish, but I'm the one who admits it." The architect of the IMF [International Monetary Fund] bailout, Anatoly Chubais, is listed in the 'Jewish Encyclopedia of Russia.' So is his archrival, Boris Berezovsky, the equally unpopular auto-and-oil tycoon who took Israeli citizenship five years ago and has since been appointed to powerful Russian posts. Berezovsky warned Boris Nemtsov, the charismatic reformer elected to be governor of Nizhny Novgorod, not to run for president because he has 'a purely genetic problem' ...Not yet 40, Nemtsov was brought to Moscow by Boris Yeltsin and now tries to bring reform to the energy sector as deputy prime minister. His popularity in national polls has dipped with the state of the shaky economy, but is little affected by the public's knowledge that he is a Jew. When asked as far back as January by Yeltsin's chief of staff to put down five names as choices for a replacement to Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin (who did not know his head was on the block), Nemtsov included in his list Sergei Kiriyenko, an energetic executive in his mid-30s who had worked with him in Nizhny, who comes from a Jewish family. Although Chernomyrdin had earlier thought Kiriyenko to be too young to be a deputy minister of oil and gas, Nemtsov saw him as "smart, honest, liberal." Yeltsin, looking for a shaker-upper with no political base, stunned the world by making Kiriyenko his prime minister. Criticism centered on his youth and political inexperience, and on Yeltsin's seeming impulsiveness, but not on the new man's ethnicity. What does this mean?"

Power Soup for the Soul -- Jews and the President, by Philip Weiss.
New York Observer, March 15, 1999
"No one talks about Jewish support for Mr. Clinton. For one thing because denial of the obvious is now the central mode of intellectual discourse when it comes to the Lipbiter—sorry, alleged lip biter. More important, because a discussion would require an acknowledgment of Jewish power. The Establishment is now heavily Jewish, from Alan Greenspan and Robert Rubin on down. There are unprecedented numbers of Jews in the White House and in Congress, Mr. Clinton’s two appointees to the Supreme Court have both been Jewish, and, out from there, Jews are among the big winners in the economic boom and are all over the Ivy League and the statusy jobs of the information age, the news media. The Clinton scandals teem with Jewish helpers ... The close identification of Jewish success culture with the Administration has made it all but impossible for Jews to separate their interests from President Clinton’s. As Barbara Walters’ sadly debased excitement over Monica Lewinsky’s emotionally retarded affair suggested, there is a secret Jewish pride and security in the fact that Bill Clinton loves Jews and Jews love Bill Clinton ... I’m breaking the rules here; it’s never cricket for Jews to talk openly about Jewish power. As proud as Jews are of their success, they don’t like to self-identify ... And the refusal to talk about Jewish power is a sign of immaturity, drawing on the nostalgic belief that we are still outsiders. It’s a lot more stirring to be outsiders, but it’s a sociological delusion. Wake up."

As L.A. Parties On, It's Cool to Be a Jew.
JTA [Jewish Telegraphic Agency] August 14, 2000
"President Clinton, addressing nearly 4,000 Jews at an outdoor party on Saturday afternoon, quoted comedian Red Buttons that 'in Los Angeles, the Democrats are changing their theme song from 'Happy Days are Here Again to [the Jewish song] 'Hava Nagila.' Senator John Rockefeller (D-W.VA) keynoted an elegant fund-raiser for the American Israel Political Affairs Committee on Saturday night and wound up a somewhat disjointed speech by declaring 'I wish I were a Jew."

My Boss the Fanatic,
by Tevi Troy,
New Republic, January 18, 2001
"A woman I recently met at a Bat Mitzvah asked me what I do for a living. Experience told me what was coming, so I kept my answer generic: I work in politics. She followed up, pressing until she got the answer she wanted--or, more accurately, did not want: I work for Senator John Ashcroft, Republican of Missouri [today the U.S. Attorney General) ... Critics imply that Ashcroft, because of his strong Christian beliefs, is intolerant of Jews. Actually, he's more than tolerant; he's downright philo-Semitic. Ashcroft was born to a gentile family in a predominantly Jewish Chicago neighborhood. His mother served as a Shabbos goy, turning ovens on and off as needed (a practice many Jews found charming when practiced by a young Colin Powell--but then Powell is African American and pro-choice). Ashcroft's father even took a mezuzah with the family when they moved from Chicago to Springfield, Missouri, where he kept it affixed to his doorpost until his death, in 1995. Ashcroft, I'd wager, knows more about Judaism than half the Jewish members of the Senate. When I first told Ashcroft that, as an observant Jew, I would not be able to work on Saturdays and certain holidays, it was a point in my favor, not a strike against me ... I fast half a dozen times a year, and I unscrew the lightbulb in my refrigerator every Friday so I won't turn on the light on the Sabbath. I'm every bit the 'fanatic' that he is--maybe more so. What most liberals and most Jews don't understand about people like Ashcroft is that their deep respect for religious faith genuinely transcends sectarian divides. And that often makes it easier for me, as a religious Jew, to work for them than for Jews or Christians who don't take any religion seriously as a force in people's lives ... As senator, Ashcroft held a voluntary Bible study in his office every morning. I didn't go and suffered no adverse consequences. But the office's other Orthodox Jewish staffer--Ashcroft may well have employed more Orthodox Jews than any other senator--attended regularly. And every other attendee, including the senator, was impressed by this staffer's knowledge and understanding of the Old Testament."

The Men From JINSA and CSP,
The Nation, August 15, 2002
"Almost thirty years ago, a prominent group of neoconservative hawks found an effective vehicle for advocating their views via the Committee on the Present Danger, a group that fervently believed the United States was a hair away from being militarily surpassed by the Soviet Union, and whose raison d'être was strident advocacy of bigger military budgets, near-fanatical opposition to any form of arms control and zealous championing of a Likudnik Israel. Considered a marginal group in its nascent days during the Carter Administration, with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 CPD went from the margins to the center of power. Just as the right-wing defense intellectuals made CPD a cornerstone of a shadow defense establishment during the Carter Administration, so, too, did the right during the Clinton years, in part through two organizations: the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) and the Center for Security Policy (CSP). And just as was the case two decades ago, dozens of their members have ascended to powerful government posts, where their advocacy in support of the same agenda continues, abetted by the out-of-government adjuncts from which they came. Industrious and persistent, they've managed to weave a number of issues--support for national missile defense, opposition to arms control treaties, championing of wasteful weapons systems, arms aid to Turkey and American unilateralism in general--into a hard line, with support for the Israeli right at its core. On no issue is the JINSA/CSP hard line more evident than in its relentless campaign for war--not just with Iraq, but 'total war,' as Michael Ledeen, one of the most influential JINSAns in Washington, put it last year. For this crew, 'regime change' by any means necessary in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority is an urgent imperative. Anyone who dissents--be it Colin Powell's State Department, the CIA or career military officers--is committing heresy against articles of faith that effectively hold there is no difference between US and Israeli national security interests, and that the only way to assure continued safety and prosperity for both countries is through hegemony in the Middle East--a hegemony achieved with the traditional cold war recipe of feints, force, clientism and covert action."

US think tanks give lessons in foreign policy,
Guardian (UK), August 19, 2002
"A little-known fact about Richard Perle, the leading advocate of hardline policies at the Pentagon, is that he once wrote a political thriller ... When he is not too busy at the Pentagon, or too busy running Hollinger Digital - part of the group that publishes the Daily Telegraph in Britain - or at board meetings of the Jerusalem Post, Mr Perle is 'resident fellow' at one of the thinktanks - the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Mr Perle's close friend and political ally at AEI is David Wurmser, head of its Middle East studies department. Mr Perle helpfully wrote the introduction to Mr Wurmser's book, Tyranny's Ally: America's Failure to Defeat Saddam Hussein. Mr Wurmser's wife, Meyrav, is co-founder, along with Colonel Yigal Carmon, formerly of Israeli military intelligence - of the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri), which specialises in translating and distributing articles that show Arabs in a bad light. She also holds strong views on leftwing Israeli intellectuals, whom she regards as a threat to Israel (see "Selective Memri", Guardian Unlimited, August 12, 2002). Ms Wurmser currently runs the Middle East section at another thinktank - the Hudson Institute, where Mr Perle recently joined the board of trustees. In addition, Ms Wurmser belongs to an organisation called the Middle East Forum. Michael Rubin, a specialist on Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, who recently arrived from yet another thinktank, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, assists Mr Perle and Mr Wurmser at AEI. Mr Rubin also belongs to the Middle East Forum ... Those who work for US thinktanks are often given university-style titles such as 'senior fellow', or 'adjunct scholar', but their research is very different from that of universities - it is entirely directed towards shaping government policy. What nobody outside the thinktanks knows, however, is who pays for this policy-shaping research. Under US law, large donations given to non-profit, 'non-partisan' organisations such as thinktanks must be itemised in their annual 'form 990' returns to the tax authorities. But the identity of donors does not need to be made public. The AEI, which deals with many other issues besides the Middle East, had assets of $35.8m (£23.2m) and an income of $24.5m in 2000, according to its most recent tax return."

Turkey, Israel and the US,
The Nation, August 23, 2002
"In a 1996 Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies paper prepared for [Israeli prime minister] Binyamin Netanyahu, the authors---including [Jews] Richard Perle and Douglas Feith, now, respectively, chair of the Defense Policy Board and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy---advised Israel to 'shape its strategic environment by weakening, containing and even rolling back Syria,' and to 'focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq--an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right.' It's all heady stuff, but perhaps the most interesting parts are references to realizing the 'new strategy for securing the realm' by 'working closely with' or working 'in cooperation' with Turkey. Not only have the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) and the Center for Security Policy (CSP) been enthusiastic boosters in the service of assuring a constant flow of US military aid to Turkey, but JINSA/CSP advisers Perle and Feith have spent the past fifteen years--in governmental and private capacities--working quietly and deftly to keep the US arms sluice to Turkey open, as well as drawing both Turkey and Israel and their respective American lobbies closer together."

New Nixon Tape Transcripts: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (Previously Unpublished Material),
Daniel Ellsberg
Excerpts, fom the above material, per Jews in Nixon's government: here.

American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Fortune
This pro-Israel group is ranked fourth in the Fortune magazine list of American lobbying organizations, ahead of the likes of the AFL-CIO and American Medical Association.

The Jewish Establishment, by Joseph Sobran. [Also directly linked here]. Sobran is a syndicated newspaper columnist. This article doesn't appear at his own web site (it's linked to another site), and here he explains why. On this page one can also find links to other Sobran articles about Jews and Israel that syndicated news organizations don't want.
"It's permissible to discuss the power of every other group, from the Black Muslims to the Christian Right, but the much greater power of the Jewish Establishment is off-limits. That, in fact, is the chief measure of its power: its ability to impose its own taboos while tearing down the taboos of others - you might almost say its prerogative of offending. You can read articles in Jewish-controlled publications from the Times to Commentary blaming Christianity for the Holocaust or accusing Pope Pius XII of indifference to it, but don't look for articles in any major publication that wants to stay in business examining the Jewish role in Communism and liberalism, however temperately. Power openly acquired, openly exercised, and openly discussed is one thing. You may think organized labor or the Social Security lobby abuses its power, but you don't jeopardize your career by saying so. But a kind of power that forbids its own public mention, like the Holy Name in the Old Testament, is another matter entirely."

Increasing Political Isolation for Jews,
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, November 8, 2002
"If all those statistics are true about Jews still being one of the most liberal voting blocs in the nation, why are they increasingly estranged from the American left? Easy: The left, ranging from the anti-globalism fringes to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to some segments of the mainstream liberal community, has adopted policies and perspectives that even many progressive Jews regard as offensive and dangerous. Good causes have been rendered marginal by activists looking for easy-to-grasp heroes and villains; political correctness has turned Israel from a noble experiment into the ultimate example of vicious colonialism. And a political culture that can’t say no to extremists has turned the concept of civil rights on its head. It’s no longer unusual to see activists peddling the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" at anti-war and anti-globalism rallies — and for organizers, for all their talk of human rights, to remain silent in the face of this overt anti-Semitism. That’s producing a kind of political disenfranchisement for Jewish voters who remain strongly liberal, but increasingly lack partners with whom to pursue those political interests. ... It’s not just the CBC. When anti-globalism, anti-International Monetary Fund forces come to Washington to demonstrate, a wide range of left-wing groups rally under a banner that also includes nutty anarchists and aggressive pro-Palestinian forces. Collectively, they depict Israel as the last colonial power and the ultimate example of institutional human rights abuses, Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein as misunderstood freedom fighters, Zionism as inherently racist. ... The result: Jews who remain liberal, which means a majority are becoming politically isolated."

Latin America's Dilemma: Otto Reich's Propaganda is Reminiscent of the Third Reich,
Common Dreams, April 19, 2002
"The Bush administration is engaging in damage control for their questionable involvement in the failed 2 day coup against the democratically elected government of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Alarmingly, the ominous Otto Reich [father is Jewish, mother Cuban] is emerging as a key player in the administration's role in the failed coup attempt to replace Chavez with an oligarchy of business, military and wealthy elites ... Reich is a right-wing Cuban-American obsessed with overthrowing Fidel Castro's regime and is also a big political supporter of President Bush's brother and Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who needs strong support from Cubans in Florida in his re-election bid this year. Reich, along with fellow Reagan administration cohorts, Elliott Abrams and John Negroponte, were discredited for their covert activities and false assertions when the United States intervened in Central America in the 1980's and '90s, but have been re-instated in prominent positions in the second Bush administration. They abhor Latin-American governments that are elected by the poor and working class people, like the Chavez government in Venezuela and the deposed Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Abrams was convicted of lying to Congress about the Iran-Contra scandal, but has been remarkably rehabilitated and recycled back into the second Bush administration as head of the 'Office of Democracy and Human Rights' ... The most recent resurrection of this trio of right-wing renegades is the appointment of Otto Reich ... On September 30, 1987 a Republican appointed comptroller general of the U.S. found that Reich had done things as director of the OPD that were 'prohibited, covert propaganda activities, 'beyond the range of acceptable agency public information activities...'. The same report said Mr. Reich's operation violated 'a restriction on the State Department's annual appropriations prohibiting the use of federal funds for publicity or propaganda purposes not authorized by Congress.' Reich used the covert propaganda to demonize the democratically elected Sandinista government of Nicaragua and establish the Contras as fearless freedom fighters."

Was This Network Worth Saving? Pacifica Caves In To Smear Campaign,
Counterpunch, October 4, 2002
"On April 17, a program titled 'Jewish Voices' [JV] aired on KPFT, a Pacifica radio station in Houston, Texas. Just a few months into Pacifica's 'renaissance' after a California court victory had apparently returned the network into progressive, and thus safe, hands, KPFT had aired many shows that were absent in previous years. I myself had been on several times in the first months of 2002, interviewing Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Phyllis Bennis, Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez, Ed Herman, and Dan Coughlin (the Executive Director of Pacifica), to name a few. Before that, for two years I had been the co-host of 'Progressive Forum,' a weekly show hosted by Wally James and dedicated to covering world affairs and local politics. But the JV show was something quite different. Just moments after it began, it became apparent that this show was pressing an aggressive Zionist message. The guests included an official from the local Israeli consulate, a Rabbi, and the executive director of the local chapter of the American Jewish Committee, Donna de la Paz. The show was being produced by Stan Merriman, an operator in KPFT politics and a local activist in the Democratic Party. In the course of this program, it became clear that the hosts were strident apologists for the Sharon government. The worst part, however, was their treatment of callers. They cut off people trying to disagree with them and would not allow opposing viewpoints to be heard. I can't think of anything more antithetical to the Pacifica mission than censoring callers who challenged the type of Zionist propaganda that was being aired on that show ... Within hours, Merriman, Geiselman, and other Zionists, particularly Edwin Johnston and Dan Jones, political rivals and well-known disruptive elements in the KPFT community, had placed messages on every internet message board relating to Pacifica [and some that weren't even directly Pacifica-oriented] from New York to Los Angeles claiming that I had used a racial slur and that I was anti-semitic [a good chronicle of the whole episode and supporting documents can be found at http://www.acksisofevil.org]."

Pro-Israel PAC [Political Action Committee] Contributions to 2000 Congressional Candidates, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
"Total for 1999-2000 Election Cycle $2,044,606. Total 1978-2000 Funds to Congressional Candidates: $34,607,182. Total No. of Recipient Candidates, 1978-2000 1,732."

A Kosher Conspiracy, New Statesman, January 14, 2002
"That there is a Zionist lobby and that it is rich, potent and effective goes largely unquestioned on the left. Big Jewry, like big tobacco, is seen as one of life's givens. According to this view, Israel has the British media pretty well sewn up. Wealthy Jewish business leaders, acting in concert with establishment types and co-ordinated by the Israeli embassy, have supposedly nobbled newspaper editors and proprietors, and ensured that the pro-Palestinian position is marginalised both in news reporting and on the comment pages. As one well-known foreign affairs specialist puts it: 'The sheer scale of the activity is awesome. It operates at every level. By comparison, the disparate, underfunded and shambolic pro-Palestinian organisations don't stand a chance.' He insists that these words remain unattributable because, he claims, 'the fact is that journalists put their careers in jeopardy by speaking up for the Palestinians. That's ultimately the Zionist lobby's most powerful weapon.' Nevertheless, many journalists have spoken out against the Zionist lobby over the past 12 months. Last spring, there was a spat in the Spectator between Lord Black of Crossharbour, the magazine's proprietor, and three well-known contributors to his newspapers. William Dalrymple, A N Wilson and Piers Paul Read wrote a letter complaining that 'under Black's proprietorship, serious, critical reporting of Israel is no longer tolerated in the Telegraph Group.' Conrad Black (who also owns the Jerusalem Post and is married to Barbara Amiel, the enthusiastic Zionist columnist) promptly returned fire. The troublesome trio, he alleged, illustrated 'the depths of the problem of anti-Semitism in the British media' ... A few months later, Sam Kiley, a foreign correspondent for the Times, resigned after a row with his editors. Kiley had succeeded in tracking down and interviewing the Israeli soldiers who had shot dead Mohammed al-Durrah, the 12-year-old boy who had become, posthumously, an icon of the intifada. Middle managers at Wapping, Kiley claims, know that Rupert Murdoch has business interests in Israel and would 'fly into hysterical terror every time a pro-Israel lobbying group wrote in with a quibble.' The instruction Kiley received to file his piece 'without mentioning the dead kid' was the last straw. Just before Christmas, Deborah Orr, who writes a column for the Independent, complained that she was 'fed up with being called an anti-Semite.' A tendency to equate anti-Zionism - indeed, any criticism of Israel - with anti-Semitism is a persistent vice of Zionist campaigners. Time was when the worst a commentator could expect if he or she had written critically about Israel was a telephone call from the publisher Lord Weidenfeld, registering his anguish and disappointment. Weidenfeld, at one time chef de cabinet to Israel's founding president, Chaim Weizmann, was and remains a serious operator at the level of government, editors and media proprietors ... Today, however, critics of Israeli policy are guaranteed to receive thousands of vituperative letters and e-mails. These correspondents take their cue from organisations such as the Zionist Federation's Media Response Unit, run by the former Labour MP for Basildon Eric Moonman."

Our Vichy Congress,
Counterpunch, May 10, 2002
"A Congressional Staffer Details Israel's Stranglehold on Capitol Hill: 'We are All Members of Likud Now' ... What, then, is one to make of our representatives and senators in Congress assembled? For expressions of sheer grovelling subservience to a foreign power, the pronouncements of Laval and Petain pale in comparison to the rhetorical devotion with which certain Congressmen have bathed the Israel of Ariel Sharon ... A perusal of the May 6, 2002 Jerusalem Post reveals the following headline: "Visiting Congressmen Advise Israel to Resist US Administration Pressure." The Israeli newspaper chronicles the pilgrimage of a group of Congressional wardheelers to the Promised Land, carrying with them a copy of the resolution of support for the Israeli government which passed Congress by a vote of 352-21 with 29 abstentions. The delegation's leader, Rep. James Saxton of New Jersey, displayed a copy of the resolution to reporters, which he said they wanted to "hand deliver" to the Israeli people. Saxton's enthusiasm for Israel is a matter of long standing, and extends to providing Congressional employment to Israeli citizen--and rumored Mossad asset--Yosef Bodansky. An ironic aspect to this Congressional junket is that these are precisely the public officials who routinely suggest that dissent against the Bush administration's conduct of the war in Afghanistan is tantamount to treason ... No criticism of President Bush is warranted, apparently, except where Israel is involved. In that case, one is seemingly permitted to travel to foreign countries at taxpayer expense for the purpose of publicly undercutting one's own government's foreign policy. What gives this circumstance added savor is the recollection that Jesse Jackson's erstwhile forays into hostage negotiation in Lebanon and the Balkans met with grumbling from Republicans that Jackson ought to be prosecuted for violating the Logan Act. Again, apparently the Israel exception applies ... Of course, there are innumerable lobbies in Washington, from environmental to telecommunications to chiropractic; why is AIPAC different? For one thing, it is a political action committee that lobbies expressly on behalf of a foreign power; the fact that it is exempt from the Foreign Agents' Registration Act is yet another mysterious "Israel exception." For another, it is not just the amount of money it gives, it is the political punishment it can exact: just ask Chuck Percy or Pete McClosky. Since the mid-1980s, no Member of Congress has even tried to take on the lobby directly. As a Senate staffer told this writer, it is the 'cold fear' of AIPAC's [American Israel Political Action Committee] disfavor that keeps the politicians in line."

On the Jewish Question, by Karl Marx (1843/1844)
Karl Marx's infamous -- though little known today -- indictment of the Jewish community.

The Reason Why Tory's Cronies Make Us Angry.
The Independent, [Great Britain], June 26, 2000
"Let's be clear: The tax affairs of Lord [Michael] Levy, the millionaire businessman who raised a massive war chest for Tony Blair's 1997 general election campaign, are a side show that distracts us from a much more important point about the noble lord - what it tells us about the crucial role played by the rich and infamous over political parties and public affairs. All citizens have the absolute right to minimise their tax bill through legitimate arrangements acceptable to the Inland Revenue. Why on earth should anyone, rich or poor, voluntarily pay more tax than they are required? Eyebrows may well be raised that Lord Levy's tax bill for 1998/99 was a little over £5,000, implying a taxable income of about £20,000 ... Sleaze is a two way street for both parties with Lord Ashcroft of Belize looking almost respectable by comparison with Lord Levy's extraordinary influence on public affairs. The scandal is not the size of their fortunes and their tax bills, but the fact that their largesse can be rewarded with peerages and position without any public accountability for their actions. Lord Levy first came to Tony Blair's attention when he was shadow Home Secretary, quickly becoming a personal chum and regular tennis partner. As Michael Levy he had been going about his perfectly respectable business of raising huge amounts of dosh for Jewish and cancer charities ... The scandal [is] that Tony Blair should not have been allowed to get away with is the secretive appointment of Lord Levy as his personal envoy in the Middle East. No doubt Lord Levy is carrying out his duties impeccably. There is no suggestion other than that he is seeking to be a force for peace. But he is totally unaccountable to the House of Commons - and even to the House of Lords of which he is nominally a member."

Lord Michael Levy, Red Star Research
"Lord [Michael] Levy is one of the most imporant fundraisers for the Labour Party and [British prime minister] Tony Blair's unofficial envoy to the Middle East. He met Blair at a dinner party in 1994 held by Gideon Meir, a senior Israeli diplomat, and became his tennis partner. Levy was in charge of donations to the 'private trust' which funded Tony Blair's office before the 1997 election (which reached pounds 7 million), and is now the chief fundraiser for the 'high value' donors account at the Labour Party, along with his deputy Amanda Delew (who worked with him at Jewish Care) ... Chase House [is] Levy's home in Totteridge (north London) ... He also owns a villa in Herzilya Pituah, an exclusive suburb of Tel Aviv in Israel."

Scurrying Towards Bethlehem, by Perry Anderson,
New Left Review, July-August 2001
"Ever since [1948], Zionism has relied on a carapace of American power as it once did the British. The depth and strength of the relationship, however, has been of another order. Not only is the United States incomparably wealthier and more powerful than Britain was in its heyday, letits [sic] declining inter-war years. Within it the Jewish community, which by its own efforts has become the most successful of all immigrant groups in the country, exercises an influence on the state beyond the dreams of any counterpart in the past of European Jewry. Entrenched in business, government and media, American Zionism has since the sixties acquired a firm grip on the levers of public opinion and offical policy towards Israel, that has weakened only on the rarest of occasions." [PDF file, cited here from p. 11]

La Raza and Jews on Collision Course in Alta California. La Voz de Aztlan. 2001
"The Jews of California, about 3% of the state's population, have an overwhelming and disproportionate share of the state's wealth which they utilize effectively to wield immense influence on the state's political apparatus principally through dominance of the Democratic Party. Both U.S Senators of the state are ladies of Jewish descent and there is no sector of California society, either private or public, in which Jews are not significant policy makers. The sectors that they can not control directly, they will do it indirectly through the purchase of influence as well as the cunning manipulation of ethnic and other minorities. La Raza's victory in the 20th Senate District has been a turning point in the relationship between Mexicanos and Jews. It is the very first time that a significant clash for political control, at the state level, has taken place between the two ethnic groups. ... . The battle for the 20th Senate District in California should provide a very valuable lesson for La Raza. In our political struggle for self-determination, we can not assume the certain groups will be our friends. Jews have catered for our vote in the past but when it comes our turn to share in real political power, they will turn their face and become our enemies. Since they comprise a very small percent of the overall population, they are forced to utilize strategies outside of having the most numbers to maintain control. A principal strategy is to utilize their vast supply of funds to manipulate the political system as they are presently doing in the race for mayor of Los Angeles. They are very adept at manipulating the varied political interests as well as the interests of racial, ethnic and sexual preference minorities ... Jews are very good at formimg alliances with anyone as long it serves their interests . They play all sides of a fence, this way they guarantee that they will always be on the winning side. What they are doing now in the present race for mayor of Los Angeles speaks volumes as to the varied and effective strategies they utilize to perpetuate their political and economic power. Sensing that Chicanos and Mexicanos have now become an increasing challenge that can no longer be checked with their traditional methods, they have now resorted to investing in the development and empowerment of a small cadre of 'vendido hispanic politicos' that they can easily manipulate to carry out their policies."

Hayden's Future in Doubt After Loss. Los Angeles Times, June 17, 2001
"On Saturday, the city clerk finally tallied the last of the ballots in [left-wing activist, former state representative and former husband of Jane Fonda, Tom] Hayden's Los Angeles City Council race, declaring his opponent, Jack Weiss, the winner. A former prosecutor who has never held elected office, Weiss won by just 369 votes ... A Midwestern Catholic, Hayden ... faced a subtle challenge in a district known for electing Jewish community activists as leaders."

Nader's Green Party Calls for Halt to Aid to Israel.
[Jewish] Forward, October 27, 2000
" Ralph Nader's Green Party called this week for a suspension of United States aid to Israel and blamed the Jewish state for the current violence in the Middle East. The statement paralleled a series of recent declarations by Mr. Nader, in which the third-party presidential candidate reportedly accused Vice President Gore of being 'cowardly' in his stated support of Israel and criticized Mr. Gore and Governor Bush for 'taking sides' on Israel's behalf in the Middle East conflict ... Democratic activists are calling the Green Party's statement one of the most anti-Israel ever attributed to a party engaged in a presidential campaign. They are demanding that Green Party Jews abandon Mr. Nader and his running mate, Winona LaDuke, a Native American activist whose mother is Jewish."

The ADL Snoops. Counterpunch, [Undated]
"The ADL [Anti-Defamation League] claims to be the nation's leading defender against prejudice and bigotry but in this instance its targets were members of the African National Congress and its supporters, and apparently everyone, Arab and non-Arab, who had the temerity to criticize Israel ... Their spying efforts proved to be part of a much larger intelligence gathering operation that targeted some 12,000 individuals and more than 600 left-of-center organizations in northern California. After the first flurry of publicity, the ADL's spin doctors successfully kept the story from receiving the national coverage that the situation warranted. But the story hasn't gone away."

Mother Jones magazine's ranking of the the top 400 American political (Democratic and Republican) campaign funders for the year 2000. For starters, four of the first five listed are Jewish, of whom two are immigrants from Israel, and a third is an activist for Israeli causes. Despite the fact that Jews represent only 2.5% of the American population, of the first 100 economic string pullers, at least 42 are Jewish. [MOTHER JONES magazine]

Democratic Party Top 50 Career Patron List. The Center for Public Integrity
Of the top ten "patrons" ranked in this list, six are workers' organizations (American Federation of Teachers, etc.) The other four are private companies; all of them are headed by Jews: Seagram (Edgar Bronfman), Loral Space and Communications (Bernard Schwartz), Walt Disney Company (Michael Eisner), and the Shorenstein Company (Walter Shorenstein).

Beyond Regime Change. The administration doesn't simply want to oust Saddam Hussein. It wants to redraw the Mideast map,
by Sandy Toland, Los Angeles Times, December 1, 2002
"If you want to know what the administration has in mind for Iraq, here's a hint: It has less to do with weapons of mass destruction than with implementing an ambitious U.S. vision to redraw the map of the Middle East. The new map would be drawn with an eye to two main objectives: controlling the flow of oil and ensuring Israel's continued regional military superiority. The plan is, in its way, as ambitious as the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement between the empires of Britain and France, which carved up the region at the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The neo-imperial vision, which can be ascertained from the writings of key administration figures and their co-visionaries in influential conservative think tanks, includes not only regime change in Iraq but control of Iraqi oil, a possible end to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and newly compliant governments in Syria and Iran -- either by force or internal rebellion. For the first step -- the end of Saddam Hussein -- Sept. 11 provided the rationale. But the seeds of regime change came far earlier. 'Removing Saddam from power,' according to a 1996 report from an Israeli think tank to then-incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was 'an important Israeli strategic objective.' Now this has become official U.S. policy, after several of the report's authors took up key strategic and advisory roles within the Bush administration. They include Richard Perle, now chair of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board; Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense; and David Wurmser, special assistant in the State Department. In 1998, these men, joined by Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz (now the top two officials in the Pentagon), Elliott Abrams (a senior National Security Council director), John Bolton (undersecretary of State) and 21 others called for 'a determined program to change the regime in Baghdad.' [NOTE: ALL THOSE NAMED HERE, EXCEPT RUMSFELD, ARE JEWISH] After removing Hussein, U.S. forces are planning for an open-ended occupation of Iraq, according to senior administration officials who spoke to the New York Times ... Control of the country's vast oil reserves, the second largest in the world and worth nearly $3 trillion at current prices, would be a huge strategic prize. Some analysts believe that additional production in Iraq could drive world prices down to as low as $10 a barrel and precipitate Iraq's departure from OPEC, possibly undermining the cartel. This, together with Russia's new willingness to become a major U.S. oil supplier, could establish a long-sought counterweight to Saudi Arabia, still the biggest influence by far on global oil prices ... Next month, key Iraqi exiles will meet with oil executives at an English country retreat to discuss the future of Iraqi petroleum. The conference, sponsored by the Center for Global Energy Studies and chaired by Sheik Zaki Yamani, the former Saudi oil minister, will feature Maj. Gen. Wafiq Samarrai, the former head of Iraqi military intelligence, and former Iraqi Oil Minister Fadhil Chalabi, now executive director of the center ... But taking over Iraq and remaking the global oil market is not necessarily the endgame. The next steps, favored by hard-liners determined to elevate Israeli security above all other U.S. foreign policy goals, would be to destroy any remaining perceived threat to the Jewish state: namely, the regimes in Syria and Iran. 'The War Won't End in Baghdad,' wrote the American Enterprise Institute's Michael Ledeen [also Jewish] in the Wall Street Journal. In 1985, as a consultant to the National Security Council and Oliver North, Ledeen helped broker the illegal arms-for-hostages deal with Iran by setting up meetings between weapons dealers and Israel. In the current war, he argues, 'we must also topple terror states in Tehran and Damascus.' In urging the expansion of the war on terror to Syria and Iran, Ledeen does not mention Israel. Yet Israel is a crucial strategic reason for the hard-line vision to 'roll back' Syria and Iran -- and another reason why control of Iraq is seen as crucial. In 1998, Wurmser, now in the State Department, told the Jewish newspaper Forward that if Ahmad Chalabi were in power and extended a no-fly, no-drive zone in northern Iraq, it would provide the crucial piece for an anti-Syria, anti-Iran bloc. 'It puts Scuds out of the range of Israel and provides the geographic beachhead between Turkey, Jordan and Israel,' he said. 'This should anchor the Middle East pro-Western coalition.' Perle, in the same 1998 article, told Forward that a coalition of pro-Israeli groups was 'at the forefront with the legislation with regard to Iran. One can only speculate what it might accomplish if it decided to focus its attention on Saddam Hussein.' And Perle, Wurmser and Feith (now in the Pentagon), in their 1996 Israeli think tank report to [then-Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, argued for abandoning efforts for a comprehensive peace in favor of a policy of 'rolling back' Syria to protect Israel's interests. Now, however, Israel is given a lower profile by those who would argue for rollback. Rather, writes Ledeen, U.S. troops would be put at risk in order to 'liberate all the peoples of the Middle East' ... Now, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has joined the call against Tehran, arguing in a November interview with the Times of London that the U.S. should shift its focus to Iran 'the day after' the Iraq war ends ... Publicly, Perle and Ledeen cling to the fantasy that American troops would be welcomed in Baghdad, Tehran and Damascus with garlands of flowers. Yet they are too smart to ignore the rage across the Arab and Muslim worlds that would surely erupt in the wake of war on multiple Middle Eastern fronts. Indeed, the foreshadowing is already with us: in Bali, in Moscow, in Yemen and on the streets of Amman. It's clear that even in Jordan, a close ally of the U.S., the anger at a U.S. attack on Iraq could be hard to contain. Indeed, the hard-liners in and around the administration seem to know in their hearts that the battle to carve up the Middle East would not be won without the blood of Americans and their allies. 'One can only hope that we turn the region into a caldron, and faster, please,' Ledeen preached to the choir at National Review Online last August. 'That's our mission in the war against terror.'"

Bratton Reaches Out to Jewish Community. The LAPD’s new chief heads to Israel,
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, December 6, 2002
"William Bratton, newly appointed Los Angeles police chief, is off to Israel. He will depart Dec. 7 on a six-day trip that had been scheduled before Mayor James Hahn tapped the former New York City police commissioner to take the top law enforcement job here. Originally, Bratton was scheduled to speak to Or Yarok (Green Light), a five-year-old association established in 1997 to improve road safety and decrease accidents in Israel. But now that Bratton heads the LAPD, he has added visits with top Israeli security and anti-terrorism experts to his itinerary. The scope of the trip — from traffic to terror — reveals much about the scope of Bratton’s new job ... Bratton also faces the very real threat of a major terrorist attack on the city that he has now sworn to protect and to serve. If the agenda seems overwhelming, Bratton, in an interview with The Jewish Journal, seemed unfazed. 'I think the Los Angeles Jewish community should feel comfortable knowing there is a high priority toward preventing and protecting against acts of bias and hatred and terror, in particular, in this new environment of concern,' the police chief said .... 'The city has identified 450 potential significant targets of terrorist activity,' he said. 'Obviously, among those would be the [Israeli] consul-general’s office, temples, the Museum of Tolerance,' Bratton said. 'We constantly monitor the threats that are coming in. Los Angeles, along with New York City and Washington, D.C., would be the highest-profile targets of any anti-Jewish terrorism in this country' ... New York City Councilman Noach Dear of the largely Orthodox Boro Park section, told The Forward last year that Bratton 'is music to our ears' ... Of course he is the 'police chief of the whole city,' he said. 'But,' he added, 'having spent quite a bit of time in New York City, which has a large and similarly focused Jewish community, dealing with the ADL and being married to a Jewish woman [Court TV’s Ricki Klieman], I have an appreciation for the fear among some, as well as the hatred and the prejudice they face. Los Angeles has certainly seen some of the hatred against Jews that has been experienced in other parts of the country and the world.' When asked about the alarming rise in reported hate crimes, Bratton said, 'Hate crimes are a priority for me. In fact, each morning at 7 when I get a briefing on the types of crimes that have occurred overnight, murders are at the top of the list, and second are hate- or bias-related crimes.'"

The Israelization of America,
antiwar.com, December 7, 2002
"US officials recently announced the somewhat jarring news that Israeli security forces will be training American soldiers in the techniques of urban warfare. Apparently Israel's illegal thirty-five year occupation of Palestine has enabled it to perfect tactics that our troops will need in a 'possible' war on Iraq. Most informed Americans will receive this news with a sense of both foreboding and dislocation. The brutal tactics of the Israeli "Defense" Forces have been denounced for decades by human rights groups, the United Nations, and scores of foreign governments. Is this how we want our own troops to fight? Our sense of dislocation (even 'topsy-turvy') in greeting this news traces to something else; the fact that Israel has always been our client, not the other way around. Why are the Israelis now teaching us? Is this really something new, or is it merely an unusually explicit lesson in the continuing education of American power by the Israeli vanguard? Who has been learning from whom in this 'special relationship'? From Covert Crimes to Points of Pride Over the past half century, Israel's organized terror against Palestinian civilians has moved from the relatively secret operations of special Israeli army and paramilitary units to globally televised depredations wrought with helicopter gunships, state-of-the-art tanks, and F-16 fighters. In the process, massacres like those perpetrated in the old days by Israeli army units at Deir Yassin and Qibya have been dwarfed, in terms of casualties, scope, and property damage, by today's daily and indiscriminate destruction in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Crimes that Israel once felt compelled to hide from the world are now on full display, vigorously defended by the Israeli government. Fifty years ago, America also felt the need to conduct most of its international crimes far from public view ... Now, emboldened by the demise of its only global counterweight, the Soviet Union, and encouraged by Israel's success in using conventional military forces in a public and illegal campaign against civilians, the US is increasingly eschewing the old 'secret war' model in favor of direct and open military intervention with American troops. Witness Somalia, Haiti, Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan during the past ten years ... The Clinton administration was noted for its fawning support of Israel's occupation, and for abandoning a long-standing US commitment (on paper only, of course) to return Palestine to its pre-1967 borders. Clinton also took a big page out of Israel's book on international relations, when he insisted, against strenuous objections from the United Nations, that the US has the right to launch pre-emptive strikes, and that NATO had the right to wage war on Yugoslavia without UN approval. This year, the Bush administration dropped all pretense of maintaining security with deterrence and adopted the illegal Israeli standard of pre-emptive strikes as official US policy. Our politicians have also learned much by example from our close and 'special' relationship with the government of Israel. For decades, our pols have used cant, dissimulation and fraud to excuse Israel's most egregious crimes. In the process, much has been learned about how to turn acts of wanton destruction into a noble defense of freedom. Israel's willingness to keep 'pushing the envelope' of state terror has been invaluable in this process, training both American pols and media in the arts of propaganda required to justify ever-larger crimes. Meanwhile, the American populace has been steadily learning to accept Israel's gross violations of human rights, international law, and common decency as "necessary for peace and security", justified by 'Israel's right to defend herself'. This lesson in moral decay and desensitization is proving handy indeed, as the current US administration seeks to extend American hegemony in the Middle East by a new war of occupation."

December 7, 2002 Abrams Back in Capital Fray at Center of Mideast Battle,
New York Times, December 7, 2002
"Elliott Abrams, a pugnacious conservative and passionate advocate of Israel, is no stranger to Washington's policy wars. But Mr. Abrams's selection this week as President Bush's director of Middle Eastern affairs at the White House plunged him into one of the sharpest disputes in the nation's capital - the one in the administration over how to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mr. Abrams's appointment thrilled those who had criticized the administration for being too tough on Israel and too deferential to the Palestinians. But it dismayed those, especially at the State Department, who want Israel to ease its crackdown in the West Bank and Gaza. An administration official said Mr. Abrams's ascension had created 'serious consternation' at the State Department. It was seen there, he said, as likely to impede the efforts of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to work with European nations to press Israel and the Palestinians to adopt a staged timetable leading to creation of a Palestinian state in three years ... Supporters of Israel in Congress, who had also criticized the road map approach, welcomed the appointment of Mr. Abrams ... Mr. Abrams comes to his new job trailed by a cloud of controversy, most of it having to do with his pleading guilty in 1987 to the charge that he withheld information from Congress on the Reagan administration's efforts to assist antigovernment guerrillas in Nicaragua. He was pardoned by the first President Bush in December 1992. At the time, plenty of people around Washington said Mr. Abrams would never be back as a policy maker. Now, not only is Mr. Abrams back - though not in a position that would require confirmation by the Senate - but a raft of figures involved in the battles over the Nicaragua guerrillas, known as the contras, are back, as well ... And Otto J. Reich ["half-Jewish"], who was charged with running a covert domestic propaganda campaign against the Nicaragua government, is a special envoy for western hemisphere affairs at the State Department ... Mr. Abrams also has family ties to the neoconservative movement. His wife's mother is Midge Decter, and her stepfather is Norman Podhoretz. Both are leading [Jewish, pro-Israel] members of the neoconservative pantheon and stern critics of liberal cultural attitudes. Five years ago, Mr. Abrams wrote a book, 'Faith or Fear: How Jews Can Survive in Christian America,' which argues against the loss of religious faith among Jews and criticizes intermarriage as a danger to their survival in America. He also urged Jews to make greater common cause with evangelical Christians in rallying support for Israel ... With the Middle East consumed by the spiral of suicide bombings and Israeli retaliations, Mr. Abrams is certain to be among those advocating that Israel be given wide latitude to battle terrorism."

Mossad - The World's Most Efficient Killing Machine,
by Gordon Thomas, Rense.com, December 9, 2002
"Rafi Eitan, the legendary former Operations Chief of Mossad told me when we sat together in his living room in a north Tel Aviv suburb: 'I always tried to kill when I could see the whites of a person's eyes. So I could see the fear. Smell it on his breath. Sometimes I used my hands. A knife, or a silenced gun. I never felt a moment's regret over a killing.' Meir Amit, when he had been director of Mossad, later insisted 'we are like the official hangman or the doctor on Death Row who administers the lethal injection. Our actions are all endorsed by the State of Israel. When Mossad kills it is not breaking the law. It is fulfilling a sentence sanctioned by the prime minister of the day' ... [Dagan, the tenth man to head Mossad] would allow them to use proscribed nerve toxins. Dum-dum bullets. Ways of killing that not even the Mafia, the former KGB or China's secret service use ... Every person with proven field experience was on a plane to Kenya within an hour of the [recent] massacre ... They were the men and women of kidon, Mossad's ultra-secret assassination unit. Their sole job in Mombasa was to find and kill the perpetrators of the massacre: those behind the three bombers who had gone to their deaths laughing. The kidon would kill the planners of the massacre after they had traced them to their lair - wherever it was. It might take months - as it had with avenging the murder of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. But the kidon would find the men behind the Mombasa outrage and kill them. They would use a small laboratory of poisons, sealed in vials until the moment came to strike. They had long and short-blade knives. Piano wire to strangle. Explosives no bigger than a throat lozenge capable fo blowing off a person's head. An arsenal of guns: short-barrel pistols, sniper rifles with a mile killing range. The team chosen to go to Mombasa had local language skills. They could pass for Arabs or for Indian traders. Between them, they spoke Swahili and other dialects. They dressed the part; they looked the part. They also understood the closed language of their world. They had learned how to memorise fibres - precise physical descriptions of people. Neviof , how to break into an office, a bedroom, or any other given target and plant listening bugs - or a bomb. Masluh, the skill of shaking off a tail. The women had learned how to use their sex. To be ever ready to sleep with someone to obtain vital information ...'We try to never use the same method twice. Our technicians spend all their time devising new ways to kill,' a Mossad source told me last week."

Economist tallies swelling cost of Israel to US,
The Christian Science Monitor, December 9, 2002
"Since 1973, Israel has cost the United States about $1.6 trillion. If divided by today's population, that is more than $5,700 per person. This is an estimate by Thomas Stauffer, a consulting economist in Washington. For decades, his analyses of the Middle East scene have made him a frequent thorn in the side of the Israel lobby. For the first time in many years, Mr. Stauffer has tallied the total cost to the US of its backing of Israel in its drawn-out, violent dispute with the Palestinians. So far, he figures, the bill adds up to more than twice the cost of the Vietnam War. And now Israel wants more. In a meeting at the White House late last month, Israeli officials made a pitch for $4 billion in additional military aid to defray the rising costs of dealing with the intifada and suicide bombings. They also asked for more than $8 billion in loan guarantees to help the country's recession-bound economy. Considering Israel's deep economic troubles, Stauffer doubts the Israel bonds covered by the loan guarantees will ever be repaid. The bonds are likely to be structured so they don't pay interest until they reach maturity. If Stauffer is right, the US would end up paying both principal and interest, perhaps 10 years out. Israel's request could be part of a supplemental spending bill that's likely to be passed early next year, perhaps wrapped in with the cost of a war with Iraq. Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid. It is already due to get $2.04 billion in military assistance and $720 million in economic aid in fiscal 2003. It has been getting $3 billion a year for years. Adjusting the official aid to 2001 dollars in purchasing power, Israel has been given $240 billion since 1973, Stauffer reckons. In addition, the US has given Egypt $117 billion and Jordan $22 billion in foreign aid in return for signing peace treaties with Israel. 'Consequently, politically, if not administratively, those outlays are part of the total package of support for Israel,' argues Stauffer in a lecture on the total costs of US Middle East policy, commissioned by the US Army War College, for a recent conference at the University of Maine. These foreign-aid costs are well known. Many Americans would probably say it is money well spent to support a beleagured democracy of some strategic interest. But Stauffer wonders if Americans are aware of the full bill for supporting Israel since some costs, if not hidden, are little known. One huge cost is not secret. It is the higher cost of oil and other economic damage to the US after Israel-Arab wars. In 1973, for instance, Arab nations attacked Israel in an attempt to win back territories Israel had conquered in the 1967 war. President Nixon resupplied Israel with US arms, triggering the Arab oil embargo against the US. That shortfall in oil deliveries kicked off a deep recession. The US lost $420 billion (in 2001 dollars) of output as a result, Stauffer calculates. And a boost in oil prices cost another $450 billion. Afraid that Arab nations might use their oil clout again, the US set up a Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That has since cost, conservatively, $134 billion, Stauffer reckons. Other US help includes: • US Jewish charities and organizations have remitted grants or bought Israel bonds worth $50 billion to $60 billion. Though private in origin, the money is "a net drain" on the United States economy, says Stauffer. • The US has already guaranteed $10 billion in commercial loans to Israel, and $600 billion in "housing loans." Stauffer expects the US Treasury to cover these. • The US has given $2.5 billion to support Israel's Lavi fighter and Arrow missile projects. • Israel buys discounted, serviceable "excess" US military equipment. Stauffer says these discounts amount to "several billion dollars" over recent years. • Israel uses roughly 40 percent of its $1.8 billion per year in military aid, ostensibly earmarked for purchase of US weapons, to buy Israeli-made hardware. It also has won the right to require the Defense Department or US defense contractors to buy Israeli-made equipment or subsystems, paying 50 to 60 cents on every defense dollar the US gives to Israel. US help, financial and technical, has enabled Israel to become a major weapons supplier. Weapons make up almost half of Israel's manufactured exports. US defense contractors often resent the buy-Israel requirements and the extra competition subsidized by US taxpayers. • US policy and trade sanctions reduce US exports to the Middle East about $5 billion a year, costing 70,000 or so American jobs, Stauffer estimates. Not requiring Israel to use its US aid to buy American goods, as is usual in foreign aid, costs another 125,000 jobs. • Israel has blocked some major US arms sales, such as F-15 fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia in the mid-1980s. That cost $40 billion over 10 years, says Stauffer. Stauffer's list will be controversial. He's been assisted in this research by a number of mostly retired military or diplomatic officials who do not go public for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic if they criticize America's policies toward Israel."

U.S. liaison to Israel during Iraq war meets with officials,
Ha'aretz (Israel), December 11, 2002
"U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith met Thursday with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and the heads of the defense establishment, including the army to discuss Israeli security in the event of a war on Iraq. The discussions focused on the U.S. campaign against Iraq, and Israel's defense aid requests from the U.S. Speaking at a press conference in Tel Aviv, Feith, the number three civilian in the Pentagon, reiterated U.S. policy positions regarding its commitment to protect Israel, its understanding of Israel's concerns about a potential Iraqi missile attack. He said that the administration hoped Iraq would not attack Israel with missiles, but added that President George W. Bush had previously told Sharon that Israel had a right to defend itself ... Feith, a prominent activist for Jewish interests in the neo-conservative right in the U.S. and a declared opponent of the Oslo accords, was accompanied by General Charles Simpson, the chief operations officer for the U.S. Air Force in Europe, who is the new U.S. military's liaison to Israel's defense establishment in case of war with Iraq. It was Simpson's first visit to Israel."

Bush Taps Friedman as Top Economic Aide,
ABC News, December 12, 2002
"President Bush on Thursday capped an overhaul of his economic team, appointing Stephen Friedman to coordinate White House economic policy after brushing aside opposition from conservatives who questioned the Wall Street veteran's enthusiasm for tax cuts. Friedman, a former Goldman Sachs chairman, replaces embattled National Economic Council chief Lawrence Lindsey, who was forced out on Friday along with gaffe-prone Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill .... 'We think President Bush has found a winner in Stephen Friedman. He's not at the president's side to create or set economic policy, but to mold it, package it, and deliver it successfully,' said Sarah Chamberlain Resnick, executive director of the Republican Main Street Partnership, the largest group of moderate Republican lawmakers in the nation."

Pennsylvania's Jews Stick to Their Teflon Governor-Elect,
[Jewish] Forward, DECEMBER 13, 2002
"Yet time and again, Jews in Pennsylvania have found it in their hearts to forgive Edward Rendell, the state's blunt-talking Democratic governor-elect. Nicknamed 'Fast Eddie' and 'Mount Rendell,' the colorful ex-prosecutor and former two-term mayor of Philadelphia, son of a New York garment manufacturer, has been zinging his fellow Jews for years in ways that few Jewish politicians would dare. Yet the folks at home seem to eat it up. In fact, along with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Rendell may be pioneering a new model of American Jewish politician. Though they hardly run away from their Jewish brethren, neither one is known for going out of his way to cultivate Jewish sensitivities. Sometimes, in fact, they seem to go out of their way to inflame them. Take sex. Bloomberg, a billionaire former Wall Street trader and founder of the eponymous media empire, is famous among ex-employees for his off-color jokes and crude comments. Rendell, too, has been known to spout what he has described as 'earthy and salty' remarks. His escapades are legendary. Most famously, in an off-the-cuff 1994 interview with Philadelphia Magazine reporter Lisa DePaulo, he likened his appetites to those of President Clinton, jokingly telling the reporter she should strip after she set off a metal detector and graphically speculating about how she would act in bed. The city fathers were not amused. In another episode, before becoming mayor of Philadelphia, Rendell once gave a rowdy fan $20 to throw a snowball on the field at a Philadelphia Eagles football game. The resulting snowball riot made national headlines. Then there's the matter of Jewish loyalty. Bloomberg once told the Jerusalem Report that he would 'shoot all the clerics' in Israel and often recited a joke claiming that the 'three biggest lies are: the check's in the mail, I'll respect you in the morning, and I'm glad I'm Jewish' ... Rendell butted heads with a Pennsylvania Orthodox rabbi, Mordechai Torczyner, after the pol was quoted in a newspaper, the Allentown Morning Call, as saying that his father had kept him from any formal religious training because the older man believed that 'the guys who spend the longest time in synagogues on Saturdays are the biggest crooks Monday through Friday ... 'As D.A., as mayor, as private citizen, he's been there for every major Jewish cause,' said Mark Aronchick, a former Philadelphia city solicitor and Jewish communal leader, describing Rendell as a 'to-the-mat guy' on Israel."

Sid's Secret Triumph Plus: You think, we link!,
by Mickey Kaus, Slate, December 17, 2002
"Let's concede that John Podhoretz and Instapundit (and WaPo and the NYT) are onto something when they credit the 'blogosphere' with playing a large role in what looks to be the successful effort to dump Trent Lott after his Strom bomb. But they're all missing something -- a crucial link in the new post-blog ecology of scandal. Lott's comments were first reported, as has been noted, in ABC's ever-alert 'Note' ... Is it an accident that the Democratic bloggers all pounced on the Lott tidbit buried in 'The Note'? Think that if you like! My instinct tells me there is a tenth planet at work here, a hidden force behind the blogosphere's rising influence. What is that force? E-mailers. People who send out tips and clips to bloggers, who in turn blog about them to the world. And what highly active e-mailer was at work in this case? I think I know, and Podhoretz might be disturbed to learn his identity. His email address begins with the letters "sb ..." which Democratic insiders will immediately recognize as belonging to Sidney Blumenthal, the controversial journalist and former aide to President Bill Clinton. Sid was definitely responsible, in part, for Noah's early pick-up of the Lott gaffe in Slate -- Slate editor Jacob Weisberg got a Sid mass e-mail that relayed the 'Note' item, and Weisberg forwarded it to Noah ... Is there anything wrong with this? Not at all. I've relied on Sid's tips myself. He knows a lot! More to the point, like many bloggers I use tips from e-mailers all the time -- so often that I've come to rely on them. The vast majority of these tips are simply links to other published sources, not original bits of inside info ... It's also amusing that the right-wing's Clinton-era paranoia -- that Blumenthal is somehow behind all negative stories about Republicans -- happens to be right in this case, the very case in which conservatives are (appropriately) congratulating themselves for having themselves gone after a.prominent Republican."

The Corridor from Goldman to Washington is Well Traveled,
by Leslie Wayne, New York Times, December 13, 2002
"Stephen Friedman, named yesterday to serve as the White House's chief economic adviser, is only the latest in a long line of well-known alumni of Goldman Sachs who have found life after Wall Street in powerful Washington positions. In the early 1990's, Mr. Friedman served as co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, perhaps the most prestigious investment bank in New York. Now, he is following the same path from 85 Broad Street to Pennsylvania Avenue taken by the other co-chairman at that time, Robert E. Rubin, who left Goldman in 1992 to join the Clinton administration. After taking the same White House position Mr. Friedman is about to assume, Mr. Rubin went on to become Treasury secretary two years later. The Goldman-Washington relationship comes in many forms ...
In the Bush administration, Mr. Friedman will see some familiar faces. Josh Bolten, who worked with Mr. Friedman at Goldman, is White House deputy chief of staff and an architect of the Bush economic plan. Reuben Jeffery left Goldman earlier this year to coordinate the Bush administration's efforts to rebuild Lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11 attacks ... In the Clinton administration, a Goldman partner, Kenneth D. Brody, was named chairman of the Export-Import Bank, while Gary Gensler, a Goldman partner who retired from the firm at the age of 39, was assistant secretary for financial markets under Mr. Rubin. 'You must say that eyebrows go up when you hear of another Goldman person going to such a senior position in Washington,' said Kenneth Gross, a Washington lawyer who has represented several Goldman partners. "They have a phenomenal number of people rotating out of the firm at an early age, looking to do something good for their country. You don't see that at other firms ... The road to Washington was first paved by Sidney Weinberg, the father of the modern Goldman firm and a senior partner for 39 years. Mr. Weinberg served as vice chairman of the War Production Board in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, recruiting business executives to unsalaried positions."

A Rose By Another Other Name The Bush Administration's Dual Loyalties,
by KATHLEEN and BILL CHRISTISON, former CIA political analysts,
Counterpunch, December 13, 2002 [IMPORTANT ARTICLE!]
"Since the long-forgotten days when the State Department's Middle East policy was run by a group of so-called Arabists, U.S. policy on Israel and the Arab world has increasingly become the purview of officials well known for tilting toward Israel. From the 1920s roughly to 1990, Arabists, who had a personal history and an educational background in the Arab world and were accused by supporters of Israel of being totally biased toward Arab interests, held sway at the State Department and, despite having limited power in the policymaking circles of any administration, helped maintain some semblance of U.S. balance by keeping policy from tipping over totally toward Israel. But Arabists have been steadily replaced by their exact opposites, what some observers are calling Israelists, and policymaking circles throughout government now no longer even make a pretense of exhibiting balance between Israeli and Arab, particularly Palestinian, interests. In the Clinton administration, the three most senior State Department officials dealing with the Palestinian-Israeli peace process were all partisans of Israel to one degree or another. All had lived at least for brief periods in Israel and maintained ties with Israel while in office, occasionally vacationing there. One of these officials had worked both as a pro-Israel lobbyist and as director of a pro-Israel think tank in Washington before taking a position in the Clinton administration from which he helped make policy on Palestinian-Israeli issues. Another has headed the pro-Israel think tank since leaving government. The link between active promoters of Israeli interests and policymaking circles is stronger by several orders of magnitude in the Bush administration, which is peppered with people who have long records of activism on behalf of Israel in the United States, of policy advocacy in Israel, and of promoting an agenda for Israel often at odds with existing U.S. policy. These people, who can fairly be called Israeli loyalists, are now at all levels of government, from desk officers at the Defense Department to the deputy secretary level at both State and Defense, as well as on the National Security Council staff and in the vice president's office. We still tiptoe around putting a name to this phenomenon. We write articles about the neo-conservatives' agenda on U.S.-Israeli relations and imply that in the neo-con universe there is little light between the two countries. We talk openly about the Israeli bias in the U.S. media. We make wry jokes about Congress being 'Israeli-occupied territory.' Jason Vest in The Nation magazine reported forthrightly that some of the think tanks that hold sway over Bush administration thinking see no difference between U.S. and Israeli national security interests. But we never pronounce the particular words that best describe the real meaning of those observations and wry remarks. It's time, however, that we say the words out loud and deal with what they really signify. Dual loyalties. The issue we are dealing with in the Bush administration is dual loyalties-the double allegiance of those myriad officials at high and middle levels who cannot distinguish U.S. interests from Israeli interests, who baldly promote the supposed identity of interests between the United States and Israel, who spent their early careers giving policy advice to right-wing Israeli governments and now give the identical advice to a right-wing U.S. government, and who, one suspects, are so wrapped up in their concern for the fate of Israel that they honestly do not know whether their own passion about advancing the U.S. imperium is motivated primarily by America-first patriotism or is governed first and foremost by a desire to secure Israel's safety and predominance in the Middle East through the advancement of the U.S. imperium. "Dual loyalties" has always been one of those red flags posted around the subject of Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict, something that induces horrified gasps and rapid heartbeats because of its implication of Jewish disloyalty to the United States and the common assumption that anyone who would speak such a canard is ipso facto an anti-Semite ... But an examination of the cast of characters in Bush administration policymaking circles reveals a startlingly pervasive network of pro-Israel activists, and an examination of the neo-cons' voluminous written record shows that Israel comes up constantly as a neo-con reference point, always mentioned with the United States as the beneficiary of a recommended policy, always linked with the United States when national interests are at issue ... Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz leads the pack. He was a protégé of Richard Perle, who heads the prominent Pentagon advisory body, the Defense Policy Board. Many of today's neo-cons, including Perle, are the intellectual progeny of the late Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, a strong defense hawk and one of Israel's most strident congressional supporters in the 1970s. Wolfowitz in turn is the mentor of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, now Vice President Cheney's chief of staff who was first a student of Wolfowitz and later a subordinate during the 1980s in both the State and the Defense Departments. Another Perle protégé is Douglas Feith, who is currently undersecretary of defense for policy, the department's number-three man, and has worked closely with Perle both as a lobbyist for Turkey and in co-authoring strategy papers for right-wing Israeli governments. Assistant Secretaries Peter Rodman and Dov Zachkeim, old hands from the Reagan administration when the neo-cons first flourished, fill out the subcabinet ranks at Defense. At lower levels, the Israel and the Syria/Lebanon desk officers at Defense are imports from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank spun off from the pro-Israel lobby organization, AIPAC. Neo-cons have not made many inroads at the State Department, except for John Bolton, an American Enterprise Institute hawk and Israeli proponent who is said to have been forced on a reluctant Colin Powell as undersecretary for arms control. Bolton's special assistant is David Wurmser, who wrote and/or co-authored with Perle and Feith at least two strategy papers for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in 1996. Wurmser's wife, Meyrav Wurmser, is a co-founder of the media-watch website MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute), which is run by retired Israeli military and intelligence officers and specializes in translating and widely circulating Arab media and statements by Arab leaders ... In the vice president's office, Cheney has established his own personal national security staff, run by aides known to be very pro-Israel. The deputy director of the staff, John Hannah, is a former fellow of the Israeli-oriented Washington Institute. On the National Security Council staff, the newly appointed director of Middle East affairs is Elliott Abrams, who came to prominence after pleading guilty to withholding information from Congress during the Iran-contra scandal (and was pardoned by President Bush the elder) and who has long been a vocal proponent of right-wing Israeli positions. Putting him in a key policymaking position on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is like entrusting the henhouse to a fox. Pro-Israel activists with close links to the administration are also busy in the information arena inside and outside government. The head of Radio Liberty, a Cold War propaganda holdover now converted to service in the "war on terror," is Thomas Dine, who was the very active head of AIPAC throughout most of the Reagan and the Bush-41 administrations. Elsewhere on the periphery, William Kristol, son of neo-con originals Irving Kristol and Gertrude Himmelfarb, is closely linked to the administration's pro-Israel coterie and serves as its cheerleader through the Rupert Murdoch-owned magazine that he edits, The Weekly Standard. Some of Bush's speechwriters - including David Frum, who coined the term 'axis of evil' for Bush's state-of-the-union address but was forced to resign when his wife publicly bragged about his linguistic prowess - have come from The Weekly Standard. Frank Gaffney, another Jackson and Perle protégé and Reagan administration defense official, puts his pro-Israel oar in from his think tank, the Center for Security Policy, and through frequent media appearances and regular columns in the Washington Times. The incestuous nature of the proliferating boards and think tanks, whose membership lists are more or less identical and totally interchangeable, is frighteningly insidious ... Probably the most important organization, in terms of its influence on Bush administration policy formulation, is the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). Formed after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war specifically to bring Israel's security concerns to the attention of U.S. policymakers and concentrating also on broad defense issues, the extremely hawkish, right-wing JINSA has always had a high-powered board able to place its members inside conservative U.S. administrations. Cheney, Bolton, and Feith were members until they entered the Bush administration. Several lower level JINSA functionaries are now working in the Defense Department. Perle is still a member, as are Kirkpatrick, former CIA director and leading Iraq-war hawk James Woolsey, and old-time rabid pro-Israel types like Eugene Rostow and Michael Ledeen. Both JINSA and Gaffney's Center for Security Policy are heavily underwritten by Irving Moskowitz, a right-wing American Zionist, California business magnate (his money comes from bingo parlors), and JINSA board member who has lavishly financed the establishment of several religious settlements in Arab East Jerusalem. By Their Own Testimony Most of the neo-cons now in government have left a long paper trail giving clear evidence of their fervently right-wing pro-Israel, and fervently anti-Palestinian, sentiments ... A recent New York Times Magazine profile by the Times' Bill Keller cites critics who say that 'Israel exercises a powerful gravitational pull on the man' and notes that as a teenager Wolfowitz lived in Israel during his mathematician father's sabbatical semester there. His sister is married to an Israeli. Keller even somewhat reluctantly acknowledges the accuracy of one characterization of Wolfowitz as 'Israel-centric.'"  

Thoughts At The End Of A Tumultuous Year,
by Ed Koch (former mayor of New York, 1978-1990)
Jewish Press, December 11, 2002
"We are now going through the most virulent anti-Semitic period since Hitler and Stalin. Nearly 60 years after the end of World War II almost every country on the European continent, including England, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium and the Scandinavian countries, has seen major outbreaks of physical violence against its Jewish citizens, and against Jewish institutions, including synagogues and cemeteries. At the same time, open hostility toward the State of Israel is at an all-time high. Only in the United States have we seen a full acceptance of Jews as citizens and the Jewish state treated as a friend and ally by an overwhelming number of fellow citizens. In the U.S., Jews have been permitted to rise and fall based on their individual talents, virtues and faults. In one elite bastion after another, Jews have been selected to head institutions heretofore seen as beyond their reach. Today the presidents of Harvard and Yale Universities are Jews, as are recent former presidents of Columbia and Princeton. Having been elected three times as mayor of the City of New York, I have been the beneficiary of this country`s generosity and freedom from bigotry, and I will be eternally grateful. Americans traditionally make New Year`s resolutions. Before I list my own resolutions, I want to thank President George W. Bush and his advisers, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice for their support of the State of Israel. They could easily have jettisoned Israel as a liability in their efforts to forge an international coalition against worldwide terrorism. I will be forever grateful to them, and I hope that many other supporters of the State of Israel will recognize and appreciate what they have done. Fortunately for Jews and the State of Israel, American support of the Jewish nation has been bipartisan ... France leads those countries in the Security Council who are the enemies of the State of Israel. So too is Mexico, joining as a consistent supporter of resolutions unfairly denouncing Israel at the U.N. Security Council. I will not support National Public Radio in any way. NPR`s reporters and management delight in unfairly attacking Israel. I will no longer lend financial support to New York`s Channel Thirteen public television station. That station recently showed a documentary that was blatantly biased against Israel and has refused to acknowledge the bias or to try to correct it. I will not watch ABC`s World News Tonight anchored by Peter Jennings. For many years, Jennings has specialized in vicious and unfair portrayals of Israel intended to injure the Jewish state and lionize Palestinians. BBC News is horrifically anti-Israel and I will shun it completely. Susan Sontag will occupy the Ninth Circle of Hell for her outrageous assaults on Israel. I will no longer read her works. Regrettably, there are many others whom I could include on this list, but I will leave that for another day. I must confess I got enormous pleasure from the defeat of [African-American] Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and her father in the recent primary elections in Georgia. In my view, both are anti-Semitic and anti-Israel. No longer able to feed at the public trough, I doubt that either will make a comparable living in the private sector."

Newest Jewish member of the House makes an impact his first day on the job,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, January 7, 2002
"With 20 years of experience in national politics, Rahm (D-Ill.) Emanuel [D-Ill.], 43, who took the oath of office Tuesday along with his 434 colleagues in the 108th Congress, is far from your ordinary freshman. For many Democrats, with their party in the minority in both houses of Congress, the arrival of this Jewish rising star on Capitol Hill comes not a moment too soon ... Emanuel steps into the Washington spotlight as the only new Jewish member of the U.S. House of Representatives. His father, a pediatrician still practicing near Chicago, immigrated to the United States from Israel and spoke Hebrew with his son when Emanuel was a boy ... Swiftly moving up the ranks of the Democratic Party in the Midwest, he went on to fund raise and direct a number of successful Illinois campaigns before assuming a larger national role with the Democratic Party’s fund-raising apparatus. In 1991 he was drafted to join the nascent Clinton campaign in Little Rock, Ark. Toughness and good political instincts earned him Clinton’s respect at the beginning of his relationship with the president. As a top aide on the 1992 presidential campaign at age 32, Emanuel sparred with then-Gov. Clinton over the campaign schedule, urging the candidate to focus heavily on fund raising rather than campaigning in New Hampshire, say former Clinton colleagues. Clinton acquiesced, eschewing the New Hampshire trail for much of late 1991 in favor of feverish fund- raisers. Emanuel’s gambit paid off, with the money providing a crucial cushion as the negative attacks hit Clinton hard later on. 'It was that million dollars that really allowed the campaign to withstand the storm we had to ride out in New Hampshire' over Clinton’s alleged relationship with Gennifer Flowers and the controversy over his draft during the Vietnam War, said Richard Mintz, a Washington public relations consultant who worked with Emanuel on the campaign. Emanuel’s knowledge of the top donors in the country, his rapport with the heavily Jewish donor community and his sheer chutzpah made the difference, as Clinton amassed a then-unheard-of $72 million, say those involved with the campaign. 'He schmoozed many, many millions all over the country, including money from traditional Democratic party givers, who are disproportionately Jewish, and new Democratic givers,' said Steve Rabinowitz, a political and public relations consultant in Washington who worked with the White House throughout the Clinton administration ... Running for the House last year, Emanuel got his first glimpse of politics as a candidate, and faced an immediate test. A nasty primary battle included a rare public case of anti-Semitism when the president of the Polish American Congress, Ed Moskal, who was supporting candidate Nancy Kaszak, claimed that Emanuel was an Israeli citizen and served in the Israeli army. Moskal also called Emanuel a 'millionaire carpetbagger who knows nothing' about 'our heritage.' Emanuel had served a noncombat stint as a volunteer in the Israeli army during the Gulf War, but he never held Israeli citizenship. Emanuel responded coolly, supporters say, bringing a coalition of Chicago clergy together to denounce the incident ... A defining moment for Emanuel during his White House stint was an event which touched his political sensibilities and his personal ties to Israel: the 1993 Rose Garden signing ceremony after the Oslo accord between Israel and the Palestinians. Rahm directed the details of the ceremony, down to the choreography of the famous handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat."

Washington Scene: Rahm Departs. Israel's Man in the White House,
Mid-East Realities (Monthly Magazine), October 1998
"Enter Rahm Emmanuel. Until 1978 a dual Israeli-American citizen, and a former officer in the Israeli army some allege (unsubstantiated), Emmanuel was an up and comer, a Jewish money man, a political fixer. And he was essentially tasked by 'the lobby' to join the Clinton campaign in Little Rock. Emmanuel had never met Bill Clinton. But alot of the big-boys in 'the lobby' had, and they were increasingly putting their hopes, and their money, on Bill Clinton not only to retire and replace George Bush, but to do their things way in Washington. A few months later, during the campaign, the President of AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee[, the main front-organization in Washington of 'the lobby', was forced to resign after a recording of his bragging about his group's tremendous clout was made public. 'We have a dozen of our guys in Little Rock' the AIPAC head proudly proclaimed one afternoon. 'And when Clinton is elected he's going to be our man in Washington.' One of those men was Rahm Emmanuel, who after 7 years at Clinton's side leaves the White House today, his job completed. Another of those men was Martin Indyk, at the time an Australian citizen heading up the lobby's think-tank in Washington. Indyk and many many others remain on the job -- he is now the Assistant Secretary of State for the Middle East ... Far more scandalous than anything relating to Monica [Lewinsky], or anything relating to a few foreign dollars in recent campaigns, Bill Clinton's near complete capitulation and sell-out of U.S. policies and interests to the Israeli/Jewish lobby is the scandal no one in the American political or media establishment dares investigate, or even mention."

Jews in the Bush Adminstration,
Jewish Virtual Library ( from the Republican Jewish Coalition),
Jews in the Bush Administration:
Ari Fleischer White House Press Secretary; Josh Bolten Deputy Chief of Staff; Ken Melman White House Political Director; David Frum Speechwriter; Brad Blakeman White House Director of Scheduling; Dov Zakheim Undersecretary of Defense (Controller); Paul Wolfowitz Deputy Secretary of Defense; I. Lewis Libby Chief of Staff to the Vice President; Adam Goldman White House Liaison to the Jewish Community; Chris Gersten Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Administration for Children and Families at HHS; Elliott Abrams Director of the National Security Council's Office for Democracy, Human Rights and International Operations; Mark D. Weinberg Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Public Affairs; Douglas Feith Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; Michael Chertoff Head of the Justice Department's criminal division; Daniel Kurtzer Ambassador to Israel; Cliff Sobel Ambassador to the Netherlands; Stuart Bernstein Ambassador to Denmark; Nancy Brinker Ambassador to Hungary; Frank Lavin Ambassador to Singapore; Ron Weiser Ambassador to Slovakia; Mel Sembler Ambassador to Italy; Martin Silverstein Ambassador to Uruguay; Jay Lefkowitz Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council

Notorious brothers brush aside scandal and crimes in race for power, Questions of character matter little as Israeli political parties jostle for position in the elections,
Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), December 14, 2002
"The next Israeli parliament is shaping up as a rogues gallery, the last refuge for scoundrels clinging to public power. That is the picture that emerged when the political factions submitted their candidates for next month's elections. The ability of some figures to survive scandal and intrigue in the name of 'democracy' is perhaps best illustrated by the Yatom brothers. Ehud Yatom, a self-confessed murderer of Palestinians in custody, was barred from becoming parliament's sergeant-at-arms but there is no legal impediment to him becoming an MP for the ruling Likud party. His older brother, Danny, a former head of the Israeli spy agency Mossad who made headlines when he organised a bungled assassination attempt in Jordan, is set to become a Labour Party MP. Of the two, Ehud, 54, is remembered for his role as a member of Shin Bet, Israel's secret police, in what became known as the Bus 300 affair, involving four Palestinians who hijacked a passenger bus in 1984. After he retired from the agency in 1996 he admitted in an interview that he killed two of the surviving Palestinian terrorists, who had been taken into custody. 'I smashed their skulls, on orders of [the then Shin-Bet chief] Avarham Shalom, and I'm proud of everything I've done,' the newspaper Yediot Ahronot quoted him as saying. He later denied having made the statement but few doubted that he had been quoted correctly ... Danny Yatom has also been prone to scandal. He resigned as head of Mossad in 1997, after he ordered the assassination of the Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in the Jordanian capital, Amman. Mr Mashaal survived the attempt to kill him with a lethal injection in a busy street. Two of the Israeli agents involved in the operation were caught by Jordanian security forces, and Israel only secured their release by agreeing to release Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the then spiritual leader and founder of Hamas, from an Israeli prison. But Danny Yatom survived the embarrassing affair and later became security adviser to the then Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, who lost power to Mr Sharon last year. This week he secured the safe 12th spot on the Labour Party ticket, which, according to recent opinion polls, will guarantee him a place in the next parliament ... If, as the opinion polls suggest, Israel is moving to the right, other controversial names will soon surface. One of them is Baruch Marzel, who has the No 2 spot on Michael Klenier's right-wing Herut list. A discipline of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, who formed the now outlawed anti-Arab Kach movement, he is now confined to Jerusalem under a court order. The Kach organisation was banned after the 1994 massacre of 29 Muslims in the divided West Bank town of Hebron by a Jewish settler, Baruch Goldstein. After the massacre Mr Marzel, a resident of the Jewish enclave in Hebron, was placed under administrative detention for nearly three years."

The Hypocrisy of Lott's Critics,
Counterpunch, December 13, 2002
"[Al] Gore ran his 2000 campaign with the unflagging support of the pro-Israel lobby. For years, as discussed by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair in Al Gore: A User's Manual, Gore has pandered to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), taken direction from rabid Zionist Martin Peretz (whose New Republic has also come out with a duplicitous condemnation of Lott), and steadfastly defended Israeli settlement policy. Pelosi (whose rise to leadership is supposedly indicative of a 'liberal shift' in the Democratic Party) has argued that 'Prime Minister Barak made a generous and historic proposal at Camp David in 2000' ... [Senator Joseph] Lieberman has prided himself over the last two years as being further to the right on Israel than President Bush. Commenting on Colin Powell's 'peace mission' to Israel and Palestine in April 2002, Lieberman stated, 'I believe strongly we should not ask Israelis to stop their war against terrorists until they have achieved greater homeland security.' Later that month, in a statement of support for a 'Resolution Expressing Solidarity With Israel,' he argued that 'in supporting Israel's right to protect itself, to defend itself, we are supporting our own war against terrorism,' adding that we must not 'lose our bearings and muddy the moral clarity with which we began and are carrying out our campaign against terror.' This 'moral clarity' quickly becomes opaque when we compare outrage at American apartheid with support for Israel's version of 'Jim Crow.' The 'Jewish State' has achieved a system of Apartheid that would make Strom Thurmond blush. From schooling to housing grants, from police protection to simple freedom of movement, Palestinians not only in Israel, but especially in the Occupied Territories, face ever-increasing deprivations in the face of domination by 'God's Chosen People' ... Both the United States and Israel were founded as racist states, though Israel more overtly so. Where, at its inception, the US did pay some lip service to pluralism, the entire idea behind the founding of Israel was that there should be a homeland where Jews would have special status. This special status, defended by the likes of Gore, Lieberman, and Pelosi, was what Strom Thurmond sought to preserve for whites in 1948. One would only have to look as far as these politicians' support for the racist, segregationist State of Israel to see the hypocrisy of their horror over the racist nostalgia of Trent Lott."

GMT Cherie remains focus of newspapers,
BBC, Sunday, 15 December, 2002
"The daily diet of stories about Cherie Blair [the wife of the British prime minister] and her dealings with the conman, Peter Foster, has, according to the Independent on Sunday, led to her husband backing a new anti-sleaze law. Worried at the mistrust of politicians being made worse by the fortnight of intense scrutiny of his wife's affairs, the prime minister apparently wants MPs to be made subject to the same anti-corruption laws as other public officials ... The Sunday Express claims Mr Foster was ready to sell secrets of his dealings with Mrs Blair to the Israeli secret service, Mossad. Intelligence sources have told the paper that Mossad was also interested in Mr Foster's girlfriend, Carole Caplin, because - as Mrs Blair's so-called life-style guru - she has close links to the family."

Lieberman Mulls Run As Gore Steps Aside,
Yahoo! (from Associated Press), December 16, 2002
"Al Gore left the field of potential 2004 Democratic presidential candidates in a surprise move that immediately raised the stakes for a half-dozen others pondering a run for the White House. Sen. Joseph Lieberman said Monday he'll announce early next month whether he plans to run ... Potential rivals moved quickly to praise Gore, who still has a considerable following among Democratic voters. 'I want to simply say thank you to Al Gore for his leadership, for his service and for the opportunity he gave me to be his running mate in 2000, which makes possible the decision that I'm going to make in the next couple of weeks,' Lieberman said late Monday morning. 'I said I probably would run if Al Gore doesn't run and that remains the case.'

Players: Eric I. Cantor. From Freshman To Deputy Whip With Choice of 2nd-Term Va. Lawmaker, GOP Hopes to Attract Jewish Voters,
Washington Post, December 16, 2002; Page A23
"You know you've made it in Washington when someone names a sandwich after you. Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist and co-owner of the newly opened kosher deli Stacks, is already preparing to name one of his offerings after Rep. Eric I. Cantor, the Virginia Republican who will be starting only his second term when the new Congress convenes -- but he'll be starting it as chief deputy whip for the House GOP. Although Abramoff hasn't decided on the exact sandwich, he's ready to put Cantor's name on the menu along with that of former vice president Al Gore's 2000 running mate. "He and [Sen. Joseph I.] Lieberman will be the first two," said Abramoff, who is sponsoring a fundraiser for Cantor next month. After just two years in office, Cantor, 39, a Richmond native, has secured a place at his party's leadership table and emerged as one of Israel's most prominent defenders. As the only Jewish Republican in the 108th Congress, he's also at the forefront of the GOP's efforts to woo the Jewish community, seeking both dollars and votes from a group allied with the Democrats for decades. 'We have a great opportunity to reach out to Jewish voters, and Eric's been doing that already,' said incoming Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). 'Now he'll be able to speak as part of the House leadership.' Blunt surprised many in Washington when he tapped Cantor after only one term to be his chief deputy. ... Cantor, who sits on the House Committee on International Relations and heads the House GOP Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, is best known on Capitol Hill for his work on the Middle East. He has taken a hard-line approach to the Palestinians, sponsoring two separate bills cutting off all aid to the Palestinian Authority and its chairman, Yasser Arafat ... Cantor has used his ties with the Jewish community and business groups to pad both his campaign coffers and aid his Republican colleagues. He raised almost $1.3 million for his reelection effort, more than 10 times his opponent's total." [NOTE: Eric Cantor also "serves as Vice Chair of the Republican Israel Caucus."]

Likud sees lead wilt as inquiry mounts into alleged vote buying,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, December 17, 2002
"Pundits say a police investigation into allegations of corruption in the selection of its Knesset candidates could cost Likud enough seats to lose the election. While the Labor Party is facing its own investigation, analysts say the scope of the Likud scandal could be enough to swing the Jan. 28 election to Labor. According to the Likud’s own internal polls, the scandal — which broke last week with allegations that aspiring Knesset members had been asked to pay for political support — already has cost Likud two or three seats. Party insiders say the trend seems to be continuing ... A secretary for one candidate told Israeli television that her boss had asked her to hint to Central Committee members that she would be willing to have sex with them in return for their votes ... Two members of the Central Committee were detained Monday and place under house arrest Tuesday. The arrests, carried out by the Israeli police force’s fraud division. Some of the money for this heavy-duty canvassing was believed to come from underworld figures, some of whom recently joined Likud. Enigmatic reports surfaced in the press about 'criminal families' having funded campaigns of Cabinet ministers and Knesset members, and of  'current or past criminals' who had hosted senior ministers at their homes for lunch or dinner ... Chemi Shalev, an analyst for the Ma’ariv daily, wrote that 'there always was and always will be corruption in politics, but in a place where representatives of the underworld are elected directly to the legislature, it’s only a matter of time before the pagan idol takes over the temple from within' ... The Likud is seriously considering hiring American spin doctor Arthur Finkelstein, master of the negative campaign, who ran Benjamin Netanyahu’s 1996 and 1999 prime ministerial bids. Labor is sure to keep the Likud bribery and corruption allegations on the public agenda for as long as possible."

Poll Analysis: Americans Are of Two Minds About War in Iraq,
by Susan Pinkus, Los Angeles Times, December 17, 2002
"More than half of the American public believe George W. Bush is not getting a balanced view of whether to go to war or not from his advisors, but rather a more hawkish view favoring military action in Iraq, according to a new Los Angeles Times poll ... Fifty-one percent believe Bush is only listening to the advisors who advocate war, rather than receiving a balanced perspective (20%) or even a view opposing the war (11%)."

Arab Nations Seek to Condemn Israel,
Associated Press (here at Earthlink), December 17, 2002
"Arab nations pushed for condemnation of Israel for the recent killings of three U.N. workers and the United Nations urged the Israeli government to stop using excessive force in civilian areas. Syria circulated a resolution expressing 'grave concern' at the killings by Israeli troops after U.N. Mideast envoy Terje Roed-Larsen on Monday strongly criticized Israel's conduct at an open Security Council meeting and called for its defense forces to behave 'with greater restraint and discipline.' Several council diplomats said the resolution might get the backing of 14 of the 15 members but the United States, Israel's closest council ally, was almost certain to oppose it and would likely cast a veto if necessary."

The political wing of organized crime,
by Amir Oren, Ha'aretz (Israel), December 17, 2002
"The how-to guide to making an MK [Member of Knesset, Israel's Parliament] : Take all your relatives, friends, acquaintances and employees, have them sign on as members of the Likud, use all your clout at the local branch to be elected to the central committee, and proceed to wheel and deal. It pays off. To gain election to the central committee from the largest local branch of the party (in Tel Aviv) all it takes is about 50 registered members, and if you've covered their expenses, the NIS 3,200 you spent on their membership dues will soon be recompensed by Knesset hopefuls ... In Labor, but mainly in Likud [the two major Israeli political parties] , the primaries are tainted by criminal behavior - they might better be known as 'crimaries.' Criminologists find parallels between terror groups and criminal organizations, which pose a similar level of danger to the foundations of the state ... Organized crime has spawned a political wing, and is penetrating the government echelons. It is literally taking the law into its own hands. Its influence will be felt in legislation, votes (for the Judicial Selection Committee, the president - the vital partner in the pardoning process - and the State Comptroller) and the immunity granted from surveillance of home, office, car and telephones registered in the name of an MK, unless a judge issues a permit ... No longer a party [Likud] that has criminals in it, but criminals who have a party. When three high-ranking officials of the Public Security Ministry - the minister, his deputy and his assistant - were all subject to the mercies of the central committee in the struggle over their places on the list, very few organs of power remained outside the control of crime, although perhaps in its sights - television (the "Broadcasting Committee" of politics), the polling companies, and the Shin Bet - whose higher echelons also were also clouded over early in the last decade by their over-closeness to Aryeh Deri, who was then under police surveillance - which deals only with political subversion. When the police investigations division threatens the power of sources of criminal subversion, the latter enlist their political partners to disrupt the investigators and the law."

The new Latino-Jewish coalition?,
by Mica Rosenberg, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, December 16, 2002
"... the organization [Rabbi Mark] Schneier heads, the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding -- which has 13 years of experience fostering intergroup ties -- is trying to expand its operations, especially in the field of Latino-Jewish relations. So, too, is the Latino-Jewish Leadership Council, which was created at the first-ever Latino-Jewish Summit in March 2001. As the number of U.S. Latinos grows, members of the council say it makes sense to link Jewish political experience with Latino demographic influence. 'Hispanics and Jews have been working together for many years, but only in an informal way,' says Dina Siegel Vann, director of United Nations and Latin American affairs at B'nai B'rith International. B'nai B'rith is one of the leading forces on the council, which is headed by 15 board members ... The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding plans to open a Washington office by next summer to focus primarily on Capitol Hill, working directly with legislators in the Hispanic and black caucuses. Working together on a leadership level will allow Latinos and Jews to mutually support each other on foreign policy concerns: Latino leaders say they are willing to support Israel in exchange for Jewish support for economic development aid to Latin America ... The goal of the Council is to build a common agenda where possible, and to `find issues which we can advocate together' said the AJCommittee's Ann Schaffer, director of the Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Center for American Pluralism."


Jew Lichtinger Waisman behind eviction of Zapatista settlements in Chiapas,
La Voz de Aztlan, December 17, 2002
"The Mexican Army was mobilized over the weekend to forcefully remove Indigenous populations from the Lacandon jungle in Chiapas. The forced evictions will effect eight indigenous communities, five of which are bases of Zapatista support within the Montes Azules Biological Reserve. The rich Lacandon forest of eastern Chiapas is under direct assault by the Plan Puebla Panama. PPP is a gargantuan development project which would open up the region stretching from Puebla, Mexico to Panama to facilitate international business, including maquiladoras, oil extraction, genetic prospecting (Mexico has 10% of plant species in the world, half of which reside in Chiapas), logging, land conversion to plantations and ecotourism for rich foreigners. This violent eviction is being implemented under the guise of protecting the biological diversity of the region by Victor Lichtinger Waisman, a cabinet level appointee of President Vicente Fox. Lichtinger is a Jew that heads La Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, SEMARNAT. The daily La Jornada of Mexico reported today that there have been large caravans of yellow jeeps carrying foreigners and inspecting the area. La Jornada was told that they were groups of tourists and that each jeep carried the flag of their respective countries. However, when La Jornada inspected photographs of the caravan this is what they said (translation follows): 'Revisamos minuciosamente las fotografías y en los 38 vehículos s£lo aparecen la bandera israelita y la mexicana.' Translation: 'We reviewed in detail the photographs and noticed that in the 38 vehicles only Israeli and Mexican flags were visible.' Vicente Fox won the Mexican Presidency with Zionist money. Now it is time for the Zionists to collect on their investment. (Read http://www.aztlan.net/foxfunds.htm)"

Australian Labour MP Attacks 'Jewish Lobby,'
by Bernard Freedman, rense.com [from Jewish News], December 19, 2002
"'You have taken on the most implacable, arrogant, cruel and powerful lobby in the country.' -- media warning to Australia Labour Member of Parliament
A scathing attack on 'the Jewish lobby' was launched by Australian Federal Labor MP Julia Irwin this week. She charged 'the Jewish lobby' with being responsible for a 'code of silence' forbidding parliamentary debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and quoted an email from an unnamed 'senior media commentator' warning her: 'You have taken on the most implacable, arrogant, cruel and powerful lobby in the country', and advising that she would be 'singled out for vilification and, if possible, political destruction'. Asked why the commentator she quoted was anonymous, Irwin told the Australian Jewish News she had promised not to reveal the name because the commentator had 'felt the full force of the Jewish lobby's fury a long time ago and had gone through hell'. 'Anyone speaking or writing publicly on the Middle East can expect to be subjected to personal attacks and to have assumptions made about their reasons for raising the issue,' she said. Irwin -- who four weeks ago moved a private member's motion attacking Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, leading to a vociferous debate -- told Federal Parliament she believed her motion had broken a taboo on discussing the conflict. She said she had received 'hundreds of messages', mostly supportive, following the extensive media coverage of her motion, the debate it provoked and the attempt by fellow-Labor (and Jewish) MP Michael Danby to have the motion withdrawn. Her attack brought a swift response from Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Jeremy Jones, who accused Irwin of 'conjuring up the bogeyman of a powerful Jewish lobby [that] might appeal to antisemites, but certainly not to any reasonable observer'. 'She is acting to protect herself from the criticism she deserves,' Jones said. 'She puts her ignorance [on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict] on display and then complains about people who might point out her ignorance."

Bush Administration to Propose System for Monitoring Internet,
New York Times, December 20, 2002
"The Bush administration is planning to propose requiring Internet service providers to help build a centralized system to enable broad monitoring of the Internet and, potentially, surveillance of its users. The proposal is part of a final version of a report, 'The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace,' set for release early next year, according to several people who have been briefed on the report. It is a component of the effort to increase national security after the Sept. 11 attacks ... . While the proposal is meant to gauge the overall state of the worldwide network, some officials of Internet companies who have been briefed on the proposal say they worry that such a system could be used to cross the indistinct border between broad monitoring and wiretap. Stewart Baker, a Washington lawyer who represents some of the nation's largest Internet providers, said, 'Internet service providers are concerned about the privacy implications of this as well as liability,' since providing access to live feeds of network activity could be interpreted as a wiretap or as the 'pen register' and 'trap and trace' systems used on phones without a judicial order ... The new proposal is labeled in the report as an 'early-warning center' that the board says is required to offer early detection of Internet-based attacks as well as defense against viruses and worms. But Internet service providers argue that its data-monitoring functions could be used to track the activities of individuals using the network. An official with a major data services company who has been briefed on several aspects of the government's plans said it was hard to see how such capabilities could be provided to government without the potential for real-time monitoring, even of individuals. 'Part of monitoring the Internet and doing real-time analysis is to be able to track incidents while they are occurring,' the official said. The official compared the system to Carnivore, the Internet wiretap system used by the F.B.I., saying: 'Am I analogizing this to Carnivore? Absolutely. But in fact, it's 10 times worse. Carnivore was working on much smaller feeds and could not scale. This is looking at the whole Internet.'"

This is only a taste of the story of Jews and government. The bigger picture may be found HERE.

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