McCain at AIPAC Offers Americans and Israelis the Same Gloomy, Insecure, Hope-Free Future

Senator McCain gave the keynote address at yesterday's opening of the annual AIPAC Conference and promised that the same vision of perpetual warfare served up by Bush, and offered as an option to Americans in November, would also be available to his Israeli friends were he to become the next occupant of the White House. If I may speak for a moment from my Israeli perspective--I found the enthusiastic response to the unappetizing fare proffered by McCain, while not surprising, thoroughly distasteful. The speech of the Republican presidential hopeful was so utterly devoid of anything positive for the future, that he even managed to find precious little to say about Israel's achievements of the past 60 years (yes I am all too aware of Israel's shortcomings, but given the occasion, one would have at least expected an uplifting take on the positive side of the Israel story--but then McCain does not do uplifting). What was most remarkable though was how shallow and devoid of context McCain's understanding of the region proved to be. He is indeed positioning himself as the true inheritor of the neoconservative mantle.

McCain's speech ran to just under 3000 words. Exactly half of that was devoted to Iran and Iraq. If one removes the tops and tails--his flowery references to visiting Israel, the obligatory name check to his buddy Senator Lieberman, and reference to Henry "Scoop" Jackson (a none-too-subtle bow to the neocons), then just 725 words of that speech remained for such trivialities as Israel's relations with its neighbors, al-Qaeda, the Gulf, etc.; not surprising then that these barely got a mention.

In McCain's world the Middle East is reduced to Iran, Iraq and some terrorists running around in Gaza and Lebanon. Egypt and Jordan, the two neighbors with which Israel has formal peace treaties, and the anchors for Israel's acceptance and peaceful existence in the region, did not merit a single mention. Likewise Saudi Arabia, or any of the Gulf States with whom Israel is keen to formalize links, who were even present at the Annapolis conference and who have mobilized a platform for regional acceptance of Israel in the Saudi Initiative. McCain ain't interested. On the Saudis and the Gulf--nada.

Israel has just launched Turkish mediated proximity talks with Syria. But in a display of McSameness, McCain refused to welcome or refer to these negotiations. He quite simply snubbed the government of Israel and the leadership of its defense establishment, who are strongly behind these peace talks (by the way the Turks, who are brokering these talks, who now have a key regional role, also don't exist in McCain's Middle East).

Peace and the peace-process were at best a footnote coexisting uneasily with the overarching themes of scare mongering, terror, and fear. The best McCain could manage on the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks was this:

Yet while we encourage this process we must also insure that Israel's people can live in safety until there is a Palestinian leadership willing and able to deliver peace.

The Israeli government views the current Palestinian leadership as a peace partner; McCain--not so much.

Finally, in terms of omissions, McCain barely mentioned al-Qaeda--doing so only briefly in the Iraq context. What this ignored is the reality whereby the Iraq War, McCain's pet project, has brought al-Qaeda perilously close to Israel's doorstep. Since al-Qaeda was able to establish an operating base in American-occupied Iraq, it has carried out attacks in the Jordanian capital Amman, in the Egyptian Sinai, and apparently has a presence in the refugee camps in Lebanon and perhaps even in Gaza--all literally Israel's doorstep. No word though from McCain to AIPAC on how he might address this, except more of the same.

So what of the subjects he did talk about--Iran and Iraq primarily?

On Iran, McCain parrots the positions of that wing of the Bush administration least troubled by reality. He slammed the door shut on diplomacy:

We hear talk of a meeting with the Iranian leadership offered up as if it were some sudden inspiration, a bold new idea that somehow nobody has ever thought of before...

And suggests more of the ramped-up sanctions and threats that have served to bolster the hardliners in Tehran and whatever nuclear ambitions they have. In doing so, he even rejects the positions recently voiced by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and General David Petraeus advocating that US policy create the conditions for constructive engagement with Iran. That puts McCain way out of touch with US public opinion, 59% of which says that "the US President should meet with the President of Iran".

In a snub to 60s music fans, McCain offered no rendition of his cover of the Beach Boy's classic "Barbara Ann", and notably did not sign up to the naval blockade of Iran recently suggested by some senior Israeli officials.

Not to worry--the Arizona Senator did offer a chestnut when suggesting a possible dialogue with Iran would achieve nothing more than an "earful of anti-Semitic rants and a worldwide audience for a man who denies one Holocaust and who talks about starting...another". Then again, McCain hardly needs to travel to Tehran for that; he could simply resume his alliance with Pastor John Hagee, either directly or via Joe Lieberman, who has refused to sever his links with the Jew-baiting head of CUFI [for the latest on Hagee's mad rantings, read Max Blumenthal in Huffington Post, which MJ Rosenberg follows up on here at TPM; and for the Lieberman-Hagee love-in, and petition against, see J Street here].

McCain's Iraq shtick is all too well rehearsed to merit comment, suffice it to say that whatever encouragement certain friends of Israel in the US may have given the war, the consequences to date have been nothing short of disastrous to Israel's strategic security interests.

That most of the crowd loved the speech is a sad reflection on AIPAC, and that it is reaping what it has sown in moving so aggressively to the right in recent years. According to reports in the Israeli Haaretz newspaper, and the Jewish Forward, AIPAC even had to send a note out to its members asking them not to misbehave at the conference; in effect shorthand for please don't boo the Democrats--they might be important next year. There was an interesting piece in today's Jerusalem Post ("Is AIPAC showing some cracks?") that reminds us that even in the early 1990s, Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin was blasting AIPAC for "causing damage to Israel".

The enthusiastic AIPAC embrace of the neoconservative agenda during the Bush years was to be expected, but that still does not make it any less of a strategic blunder. And this year's AIPAC conference is unfortunately full of the same cast of characters that have spearheaded that dangerously misguided alliance. To name but a very few: from the Sheldon Adelson-funded Shalem Institute in Israel--Michael Oren, Natan Sharansky, and Martin Kramer; from the uber-righist policy world--AEI's Daniel Pletka; Walid Phares and Tony Karan of the FDD; Ilan Berman from the Committee on the Present Danger; and Jonathan Shantzer, formerly of Campus Watch.

And of course, despite everything, AIPAC will still be giving a platform to CUFI, including Gary Bauer, and one that will be reciprocated at CUFI's D.C. Summit next month. It should come as no surprise that the 2 House members who will speak at CUFI are among a handful of those speaking at AIPAC--Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN). Courageous Congresswoman Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) made the call on CUFI and refused to cooperate with them long ago, AIPAC has still not learned the lesson.

Based on this speech, McCain is determined to continue his failed Bush policies in the Middle East, and then some. As for AIPAC, it could still come to its senses and cut the umbilical cord to the right, the neocons, and the dispensationalist Evangelical Zionists. On conference day 1, the signs are not good.

Comments

[UrbanInterloper]

Just a reminder:

AIPAC does NOT represent mainstream American viewpoints. It does not even represent U.S. Jewish public opinion, at least any more than Bush represents the nation with his below 30% approval rating:

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2007/06/06/american-jews-favor-israel-syria-talks-secure-independent-palestinian-state/

Real support for Israel, for peace and for security necessitates marginalizing AIPAC, or at least the political influence of its neocon bankrollers. Time for the candidates to stop kneeling at the altar of these extremist jingoists who yearn for reckless militarism.

Thankfully, we now have an alternative. Check out www.jstreet.org

[Justtellthetruth]

There are a myriad of very effective methods to help peace break out in the middle east.
As the iraq study group indicated, the Israeli Palestinian conflict is primary.

The US must make it clear to the Israelis that the settlements and the occupation must go. That can be done by withholding ALL aid and loans until our demands are met. When the average Israeli begins to feel the actual financial cost of the settlements and the occupation (which most don't support in the first place) they are going to force through their total removal VERY quickly. ALL money that we give them is in essence only necessary to cover the crushing costs of 40 years of illegal settlements and the occupation that guards them. When that happens, it will spell the begining of the end of the conflict. It will also, as the Iraq study group intimates, spell the beginning of the end of the broader war on terror.

AIPAC and its hawks are yesterdays news. They are are going to be completely outmoded by pro Israel groups who are NOT committed to war, occupation, illegal settlements, apartheid and ethnic cleansing.

[quest44]

I agree 100% with you Justtellthetruth !

What I simply don't understand about the Republican middle class ,Christian right and the working poor Republican's is why 16 years of Republican rule has not taught them that thr Republican party is not for them they are for the very rich corporations that own them !

I would like one blue collar worker to tell me what the Republican party has actually done for them ?
Now keep out the Republican rederick that the Democrats are to blame for not passing legislature they want that expresses your needs because the Republican's had a free ride in Congress until 2006 and even after that they filerbustered every Democrat bill that came along .
So what has the Republican party done for you lately ?

[nana53nana]

THE ONLY THING THAT McCAIN IS RUNNING ON IS "EMPTY"
YOU REPUBS ARE GETTING WHAT ALL OF YOU DESERVE
AND SOME OF US IN THIS COUNTRY DON'T HAVE TO TAKE
YOUR CRAP ANYMORE.

[Agentlady007]

In this day and age, any war is war. You win and someone loses. I worry Obama will chose John Edwards over Hillary Clinton, and then I'll never speak to him again or then you may question who I mean whan I refer to " him"? Either or, and if McCain is electged we are stuck in America, so who has thought about that? Are you abandoning me and leaving Amerioca because you don't agree with this delegated authority our of the no whereness like the electoral college won last elections - and we were all supposed to know these particulars? I am fed up with these withholds from a so called free voting society of people/

[zitlight73]

Those big screens in the accompanying photos remind me of that computer commercial depicting an Orwellian scene of drab gray people then that woman athlete runs down the aisle and throws a sledgehammer at the Big Brother Screen only in this case the sledgehammer slinger has to be Obama. It's either that or let's party like it's 1984 and brush up on our double speak.

[MaynardGK]

I'm afraid the US is painted into a corner by AIPAC and the far right, no politician dare do anything other than to tow the line. He/she loses New York and all the $$ of Wall street if they dont pander, as all three have been doing.

Only until Israel by itself can invoke its conscience, and promote peace, can we begin from here to have a rational attitude again. Israel and Cuba are politically analogous: pander to the hard-liners and pretend it is reasonable.

[DietrichMoody]

McCain might have said "Yet while we encourage this process we must also insure that Israel's people can live in safety until there is a Palestinian leadership willing and able to deliver peace." But what is preventing McCain and his Foreign Policy views from promoting the following:

"we must also insure that AMERICA'S people can live in safety until there is a IRAQ leadership willing and able to deliver peace."

The problem is that there will NEVER be a safety point. Safer, yes, but never completely safe. And to who's satisfaction? America's, France's, Britains, AIPACs, Israel's. Who is going to decide that Iraq's leadership is finally able enough to maintain peace, and able enough to show leadership.


All it looks like is McCain and his Reagan Era soldiers, many in AIPAC, want to practice the same policies against Iran, that were practiced against Communism. Meanwhile there is a war in Iraq, war in Afghanistan, War on Terror, Pakistan is a threat to world safety, and we are still embargoing Cuba. The direction these Reagan Era soldiers, like McCain, are going is pathetic. These people are not making things better, they are just picking and choosing what issues to exaggerate. Its a War Against Peace. Its sad, and they are not going to be looked on too fondly the history books.

[daddysboy]

That anyone is going to vote for mccain as anything other than a warmonger is just based on ignorance. Hopefully, the ignorance level can be minimized as much as possible this election season.

[quest44]

I hope the same thing ! There are still too many Bush supporters out there with their heads in the sand who will once again vote to distroy this country by voting Republican in November .
Do I think Obama can win ? Yes I do but not only if he takes Hillary as his running mate ,which some think is his only chance ,because we all know a whole lot of those votes she received were from Rush Limbaugh's Republican followers who voted as Independents for Hillary and will certainly change their vote come November.
He needs someone he can trust who is able to bring in the blue collar voters .I think Richardson could be that person because he could pull the latino vote and he already has a lot of experience in foreign affairs ,but I am sure there are others out there who may be just as qualified .
The people against this war and the real possibility of another war this time with Iran are in the majority and they are fed up with the way Republican's have distroyed this country with their politic's of greed and corruption putting our country in the worst economic nightmare most people have ever seen in their lifetime and violating our civil rights and endorcing torture as an acceptable method of interrogating suspected terrorists. American's have had enough of Republican rule ! McCain is just another war monger and Bush clone !

[betz55]

Great another AIPAC "conference" to determine US policy in the Middle East, according to Israel.The oath of allegiance that I said everyday in school was not to Israel, but America. I will be proud of the day when an American President can put the interest of America before the interest of Israel and not be crucified for it. It's a damn shame that American politicians are selected, not on their commitment to the best interests of America, but by vowing to put the interests of Israel, first.

Every attendee should be given 'The Israel Lobby' by Mearsheimer and Walt for all the shenanigans by AIPAC and how they operate.

It's time for the US government to break the grip AIPAC has on it. What is shameful is that the people we elected to work for us perpetuate this crap.

Stop US aid NOW! Yearly US aid to Israel gives the equivalent of over $1500.00 per capita and funds the illegal setttlements, while cutting programs in the US due to "funding".There is no justification for forcing the US public to pay for health care,education,and housing for Israelis while our own go without.

Cut monetary aid, demand peace, fair settlement with the Palestinians and extract the US from Israel's damaging, harmful, and negative, warmongering policies.

Stop the same old rhetoric, and dogmatic, unquestioned, unconditional support of Israel. Level the playing field and be an honest broker of "change" and peace because nothing has worked for 60 years.

[cobobs]

The perception that AIPAC controls American politics is not in the long term interest of the good people of Israel. Tread lightly.

[CenterOfMass]

Piffle! Regardless of AIPAC's actual level of control, ominous warnings to "tread lightly" or back off or whatever are not helpful to anyone except AIPAC itself. What happens if betz55 does not tread lightly? AIPAC goes unreviewed and unquestioned.

And I note that you obliquely attempt to equate AIPAC with goodness. A pac is just about money-flow, which is about buying political influence. That's more crass, than it is good. Such an entity is not entitled to any moral high-ground, and certainly not entitled to deferential treatment.

[betz55]

cobobs, you cannot be serious. Tread lightly ? About AIPAC ? Listen pal, I live in the US of A not Israel. I am interested in the long term interests of American, not Israel. Tread lightly ? Sorry, not buying. The tread for AIPAC is going to get heavier and heavier and I will gladly lead the way.

[aht772e]

as a jewish american, i believe that AIPAC is about the equivalent of the NRA, in that elected officials are terrified of it, but that it has less actual popular support than meets the eye. Supporting Israel, a friend of the Us and a democracy in a non-democratic region, is a good thing, but uncritical support does damage to both the Us and Israel. Israel needs a power that can be viewed as reasonably neutral in helping it to create treaties and solutions with its neighbors, and if EVERY american politician is afraid that doing or saying anything that AIPAC disagrees with will cause him to lose his next election, then the US loses its ability to broker fairly any agreements in the middle east. And, if the US can not help bring about solutions, then Israel is fated to spend eternity in a perpetual state of war with its neighbors. Once upon a time we brought about peace between Israel and egypt, and Lebanon, and if we were honest, we could find common ground between Israel and the palestinians, syria, and perhaps even Iran and Saudi Arabia. But we can't do that if we can't ever say we disagree with things that Israel has done or might do. If we can't, then we are in fact just pawns of Israel and aipac.

[edtastic]

You cannot equate AIPAC with the NRA. The promotion of second amendment rights has no relationship with a lobby devoted to supporting another country that is actively oppressing millions of people because they are of the wrong religion and or ethnicity. The NRA does not put America at risk of terrorist attacks. The NRA does not insist we bomb Iran for the benifit of a country with 150 Nukes and the 5th most powerful Military in the world. An aggressive and powerful lobby for a foreign country is subversive and a threat to American sovereignty. Every politician must swear support for this country or risk losing office. It is unacceptable that our leaders are not free to put American interest first for fear of the political reprisals of a foriegn nation's lobbyist.

[MetalCanuck]

Absolutely right Betz55

[Joedlh]

I have been receptive to Obama's message so far. However, McClatchy reported today: "Both McCain, Obama exaggerating Iran's nuclear program"

The article quotes Obama:
---
"Iran is stronger now than when George Bush took office," Obama said. "And the fact that we have not talked to them means that they have been developing nuclear weapons."
---
The first statement is arguably true. The second flies in the face of the U.S.'s own NIE, statements made by the true power in Iran, and the IAEA. In fact, it is only based on claims made by Bush and Cheney.

Obama's a smart guy. He should have his staff research the facts before he makes unsupportable statements that contribute to saber rattling.

McClatchy went on to say that neither McCain nor Obama responded to requests to clarify these statements. I would like to see such a clarification.

Heres' the link: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/39423.html

[Researchguy66]

I guess you white-flaggers don't like the truth. Go John and make us proud!

[JoeBlough]

McCain is as clueless as Bush. How does the Republican Party hope to remain relevant this century with a last-century mind-set? McCain ignores countries that didn't exist when he was in grade school. He is unable to learn new facts and procedures. McCain will probably handicap us worse than Bush. I guess as long as the profits keep flowing to the top 1% of the wealthy and to the war-profiteers, America just doesn't account for much in their eyes.

[OilWarsDotCom]

How can you say mccain and bush are "clueless?" They know exactly what they are doing to achieve world conquest for american corporations. No politician (aka corporate run puppet) is going to concern him or herself with ANY nation which has not already pledged its allegience to them or does not possess a strategic resource or postion in the world. Israel is covered up with american corporate factories AND this is why we love Israel....­..........­..I feel like I am beating my head against a wall here!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jbowen43]

McCain knows his audience. There weren't ten people in that room that were interested in peace. All they talk about is war. War with Syria. War with Iran. War with Lebanon. War on Hamas. War on Hizbollah. Who do they want to fight these wars? American Soldiers. Who will pay for these wars? American taxpayers.

[Garvagh]

The "defense" budget of the US is higher, by hundreds of billions of dollars, thanks to the relentless stupidity of American foreign policy under the Bush administration. Iran has extended the hand of friendship toward this country a number of times, and the foolish response is to spurn it, or worse! Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tried to make an approach when he went to New York City last year, but the nincompoop running Columbia University ridiculed him before a large public audience! Actually, Lee Bollinger is an intelligent man who was pandering to right-wing Jewish opinion in New York.

[Donald Wolberg]

Are you an Earth resident or a species with other worldly attributes? The Iranian nut cases are kind of outside the realm of reality. One suspects if someone finds comfort with the other dimensions, a certain other worldliness might be in play. Iran is a threat to most of what is called civilization. It is a retrograde society with few positives; totalitarian; anti-intelelctual; sexist; racist; brutal; antidemocratic and militaristic. Other than that, they are not nice to the Bahai folks, Christians, Sunnis, Jews, Catholics, Bhuddists; Taoists, and jsut about anyone else.

What a fine group of folks!

[SouthJerseySteve]

When I hear John McCain make a speech, and he keeps saying "My Friends", and he shrugs his shoulders like GWB, I can only yell back at the TV, "YOU ARE A LYING POLITICIAN" and I am NOT your Friend. You are the reason we have 4000 dead brave American Soldiers--so Haliburton and Blackwater can make millions off our dead bodies.

[OilWarsDotCom]

4087 Dead - but whose counting?
http://icasualties.org/oif/

[fourex]

If I'm not mistaken both Hagee and Lieberman will address AIPAC.

[JoeBlough]

Fist Hagee says that the Anti-Christ will be a Jewess Homosexual and the Lieberman takes the stage. Coincidence? You be the judge.

[argeec]

Good one!

[rmreddicks]

"Yet while we encourage this process we must also insure that Israel's people can live in safety until there is a Palestinian leadership willing and able to deliver peace." (McCain). The subjugated - in Israeli aipac eyes through American lens, the assumed subhuman- deliver peace. Blessed be the peacemakers. The incredible greed of "America".