Well, the bad guys may be going down but even MJ is too scared to flatout say that the stranglehold he describes is the Aipac stranglehold.
Walt-Mearsheimer has it right.
Even MJ can't say that it's not some amorphous group he is talking about but Aipac.
He's right about everybody involved with Aipac being old. A few years ago, in college, I went to their conference in DC, paid for by some Jewish student coalition. Tons of kids, maybe 500 or so. Very impressive until you find out that Aipac and Hillel flew them down and put them up in a nice hotel so that they could pretend we were all Aipac'ers.
I had a great time....partying. The only true believers were wearing yarmulkas and praying all the time.
The younger generation is gone, MJ. It's too late. We see through the lies.

What does it mean that the Jewish right is losing? As Bradley Burston has written many time in Haaretz the best thing going for the Settler's movement is Hamas.

For reasons that are unclear the Jewish pundits had major papers, Safire, zion, Rosenthal, have all been the supporters of fighting the Palestinians to the last drop of Israeli blookd. Who outside of them supports such a view?

There needs to be a political settlement. The Palestinian leadership can't agree among themselves not to kill each other. No new group in Congress will change those facts unless they are going to start leaning on Egypt and Saudi Arabia to pressure the Palestinians and also to start speaking the truth to their own publics.

An aside any one who whines about AIPAC and sites the anti-Semitic work by Mearsheimer and Walt can't really be taken serious.

Daniel A. Greenbaum

The other day, a prominent legislator told me that it was no surprise that the hawks have such a "stranglehold" on Congress,

The House bill, a top priority of the "status quo" lobby, was stopped dead in the Senate, which passed, in its place, a far more moderate bill.

What price senators are going to pay for disobeying orders from their Jewish masters?

Very soon even the hand-wringers will realize that the only way to get the younger generation involved with Israel is for Israel to again pursue Rabin's path and make peace with the Palestinians. Otherwise, the younger generation is lost.

The kids (i.e. anyone under 40) are intermarrying (50% or so)

Wow, let's make a peace and kids will stop making love to goyms.

http://tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=0fea9fb1-3c8c-4671-a6ee-923a4bf7c2ee

The Clinton-Barak parameters have raised the bar so high as to make it nearly impossible for future negotiators to come to a practical understanding that works for both sides. So it's no surprise what currently confronts us: A maximalist Palestinian position and an Israeli retreat to the pre-1967 borders, which are actually the 1949 armistice lines. These boundaries were nine miles wide at their narrowest point, lacking the strategic depth to enable Israel to defend itself, which led the former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, Abba Eban (of the Labour Party) to dub them "the Auschwitz lines."

With what confidence can the Israelis contemplate that such a retreat will not be met with a barrage of missiles onto the coastal plain, where Israel's population is most densely located? Particularly in light of how Hamas has used its beach head in Gaza to fire qassam missiles into the neighboring Israeli town of Sderot.

Culpability should not be put on the Bush White House for a lack of "engagement." If there is any culpability, it should go to the Clinton administration, for encouraging Prime Minister Barak to "bet the barn," and therefore making it virtually impossible for any future Israeli negotiator to match his generosity.

Del

Thank you Wordie.
Please send your check to Ackerman and Boustany in honor of me. I'm glad to hear that I helped you to make such a a good decision.

Ackerman Condemns UN Anti-Israel Bias (Washington, DC) - (Washington, D.C.) – Rep. Gary L. Ackerman (D-Queens/L.I.) today condemned the United Nations Human Rights Council for ignoring the world's most serious human rights abuses while unfairly targeting Israel. Ackerman joined his colleagues in a letter encouraging the international body to bring objectivity and legitimacy back into its mission.

“With so many countries around the world – such as the Sudan -- committing serious violations of international human rights standards, it is obscene that Israel remains the sole country to be designated as a human rights violator. It is time for the U.N. to end the double standard,” said Ackerman.

http://www.house.gov/list/press/ny05_ackerman/PR_071707d.html
The Human Rights Council replaced the previous UN Commission on Human Rights, which was discredited by its extreme anti-Israel bias and by granting membership to flagrant human rights abusers, even elevating some to leadership positions on the Commission. The Council was established to promote “universal respect for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all” and to “address situations of violations of human rights, including gross and systematic violations.”

http://www.house.gov/list/press/ny05_ackerman/PR_092507b.html

Ackerman Hails Passage of Iran Sanctions; Measure Includes Provisions Authored by Ackerman

(Washington, DC) - U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) today hailed the passage by the House of Representatives of a bill to significantly increase U.S. economic sanctions on Iran, a measure that included two provisions authored by the Congressman. The legislation, entitled the Iran Counterproliferation Act (H.R. 1400), was adopted overwhelmingly by a vote of 397 to 16.

Ackerman, the chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, wrote provisions in the bill forbidding any U.S. government procurement from a firm that makes significant investments in Iran's petroleum sector, and allowing the president to impose sanctions not just on companies making proscribed investments in Iran, but on the corporate officers responsible for the investment decisions.

During debate of the legislation, Ackerman posed support for the sanctions legislation as the best way to avoid the necessity of military action against Iran.

Congressman Ackerman might be pushing the conference, but he's also looking around for the next Holocaust. Last year, during the Lebanon war debates on how best to squeeze Syria, the congressman began his speech with a long shpiel about the Shoah to raise the level of fearmongering to greater hights. Did it have anything to do with Syria? Not exactly. But did it have anything to do with the congressman's psyche? Absolutely. As far as I can tell, Ackerman will pay lip service to moderation, but when push comes to shove, he will stand with the extremists to keep on shoving the Palestinians until they give up. Unless, of course, they accede to Israeli domination. This still leaves plenty of room for a "two-state solution." Only the Palestinian state in this context will be like Gaza after "disengagement," its borders and air space controlled by Israel, its citizenry rife with spies on Israel's payroll, constantly under surveillance, and, no doubt, still subject to Israel's assassination policies.

Alan, I was not vouching for Ackerman. I am simply endorsing this one effort which is truly surprising considering the source.
I appreciate that this time he is doing the right thing.
Usually, all Middle East letters and resolutions are written at AIPAC's office and then handed over to a Congressman. That was certainly not the case with this one.
But you are right about Ackerman. He is as hardline as they come which makes this deviation significant.

Ackerman will glad to know that MJ agree with Alan's opinion of Ackerman.

Jdledell,
Please read the articlle that I cited and answer
Sara's argument:

With what confidence can the Israelis contemplate that such a retreat will not be met with a barrage of missiles onto the coastal plain, where Israel's population is most densely located? Particularly in light of how Hamas has used its beach head in Gaza to fire qassam missiles into the neighboring Israeli town of Sderot.

I might add that Israel "lost" war in Lebanon in spite of "IDF is a 100 times stronger than it was in 1967"
Notice the problem Turkey now face in Kurdistan.
You might like it or not but World placed unique restrictions on Israel ability to fight enemy hiding among civilians.
Trust me if Israel did something like the following it would not be “little-reported” The whole world would talk about murder, genocide, butchery, mass killing and war crimes.

http://www.slate.com/id/2176464/

So, what accounts for the decline in American deaths since the summer? It's hard to say for sure, but one little-reported cause is almost certainly a relative shift in U.S. tactics from fighting on the ground to bombing from the air.
On Sunday, U.S. soldiers were searching for a leader of a kidnapping ring in Baghdad's Sadr City. The soldiers came under fire from a building. Rather than engage in dangerous door-to-door conflict, they called in air support. Army helicopters flew overhead and shelled the building, killing several of the fighters but also at least six innocent civilians.

Bruce,
Please don't be naive, MJ lobby group and AIPAC have something in common, they need to brag about their achievments and exaggerate their importance.
I doubt that MJ has anything to do with whatever
Congressman Ackerman done in spite of impression that MJ is trying to create.

bar.

Sorry, but the concern about young American Jews being less and less identified with Israel is hardly confined to MJ and Phil. I realise that denial is a much more comfortable position for you to assume, but such left-wingers as Daniel Pipes have also piped-up about this issue. In fact, in his recent JPost article, he references a 2004 poll showing that only 17% of American Jews consider themselves Zionists.

It's the way of the world and you, being raised in LA should be more aware than most of the seductive nature of American culture. That it appeals to young American Jews who would rather partake of the benefits of our society than huddle together muttering about non-existant dire threats to Israel's very existance is hardly surprising.

All the calls for more Birthright trips to Israel and the like can't stop Jewish kids from joining the millions of other youngsters of their generations who will, as is their nature, look to their future in the country of their birth and embrace the promises of fully integrated lives rather than allow the mongers of fear to define and narrow their reality.

Bruce, I agree. E-mailing Ackerman to thank him is a great idea.

I just reread Weiss's article, the one MJ called "terrific".
He claims that these Jews at the meeting are not sympathetic becuase they are "different", "out of the mainstream", "have accents", "met in a synagogue basement", "are old".
Hardly the critique one would expect from someone, who like MJ, considers himself a "humanist", "progressive", "multicultural", etc.
Weiss considers Jenin to be a Zionist atrocity. Since MJ says this article is "terrific", I presume he agrees. Of course, these "progressives" who are filled with such contempt for Israel and their fellow Jews wouldn't even bring into consider the fact that Jenin occurrer after a month of almost daily suicide bombings including the Pesach Night Massacre in Netanyahu with hundreds of casualties (in fact a veteran peace activist was killed in the Pesach Hol HaMoed bombing of the restaurant in Haifa that was the precursor to Israel's offensive against the terror infrastructure). None of this means anything to Weiss.
Weiss also doens't know anything abou the Jewish community. He talks about assimilation-sure there is Jewish assimilation, there always has been and there will always will be. However, there is a strong core. The Orthdox and traditionalist elements, which are continually growing in the US channel their pro-Israel energies into other organizations. Even those less involved in day-to-day Jewish and Zionist activities still care, even if they don't attend the meeting that Weiss pours so much scorn on.
The fact is, that most American Jews, and most Jews around the world outside of Israel support Israel and think that Weiss's and MJ's demand that Israel make "peace" on the Arabs terms is simply suicidal.

MJ:

I am still waiting for the lefty Jewish, pro-Peace/Pro-Israel congressperson to actually call-out AIPAC as anti-Peace, partisanly pro-Likud/Republican and not pro-Israel/pro-U.S./pro-American Jews, etc. In addtiion to being true, coming from a (safe seat) Jewish Congressperson, it would give cover for everybody else.

Maybe they could do it at a D.C. conference sponsered by IPF?

Obviously not Ackerman.
Maybe Nadler?
Who else...?
Alas, still waiting...

There's another terrific article by Yoel Marcus about the conference entitled, "Not at any price," published in Haaretz:

From here, Annapolis looks like a fata morgana on a sizzling day in the Sahara Desert. Something whitish is visible on the horizon, but you cannot tell who or what it is. Only one thing is clear: There will be some summit, or meeting, or conference at which the parties will discuss an agreement, as close to final as possible, between Israel and the Palestinians. No official name for it has been chosen yet, and no exact date either. At the moment, no invitations have gone out, the guest list is not ready and no agenda has been set.

They are talking about November 26. If not November, than December. And if not December, then after the holidays, either before or after Ehud Olmert's surgery.

This project is the private initiative of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. After the failure of the American offensive in Iraq, she wants to give George Bush a farewell gift, a little something from our neighborhood. Bush's involvement will not resemble the very deep involvement of presidents Carter and Clinton at Camp David. This meeting is going to be a quickie. An international brief encounter, not an international conference.

The idea is to invite the Europeans, the Russians and any Muslim countries willing to recognize Israel in its 1967 configuration - in short, a multilateral gathering at which Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas star as peacemakers, but in sound bites.

It will be a forum not for negotiations, but for speeches, as well as a summarizing declaration of principles that will serve as a guideline for talks on the establishment of two states for two peoples. The content of the summit will be determined ahead of time, in talks conducted by Rice. If a decision to divide Jerusalem is reached in advance, Olmert will not have all of Jerusalem when he gets up on the dais. The plan is for everything that is said, or not said, at the summit to be worked out beforehand.

Saudi Arabia, for example, has already made it clear that it will demand the right of return. If it persists at this, Saudi Arabia will not be invited to take part in the summit.

There is an essential difference between Rice's involvement and Bush's. Rice can be tough with Israel, but only the president can twist Israel's arm. Bush, who is about to end his presidency without bombing any nuclear reactors in Iran or pulling American troops out of Iraq, wants Olmert to be prime minister of a secure Israel. Rice has instructions from Bush not to pressure Olmert into doing anything he thinks will endanger Israel's security.

President Bush is sticking to the principle of two states for two peoples living side by side. His road map begins with a Palestinian commitment to halt terror, but also with an Israeli commitment to dismantle settlements. There will be no international summit or encounter without a draft that sums up the core issues in the conflict in a manner acceptable to both sides.

Israel agrees to these rules. The trouble is that, in practice, any agreement that Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas sign at Annapolis will obligate only half of Palestine. Abbas will be stronger in the eyes of the world, but not in the eyes of most of his people. The Israeli public does not have the strength, emotional or otherwise, for another dummy compromise with the Palestinians.

What happened after the withdrawal from Gush Katif, with its removal of settlers by force, has left us deeply wounded and disappointed by our desire to set aside the dream of a Greater Israel and shrink the power of the extremists in the settler camp. Sderot and other towns near Gaza have not enjoyed a moment's peace. It is hard to believe that a country as powerful as Israel is just sitting there and watching its cities being pounded by rockets day after day, year after year. Would Ariel Sharon go to Annapolis under such conditions?

Mahmoud Abbas and his aides, dressed in European suits that would even pass muster with a fashion connoisseur like Dalia Itzik, give the impression of seeking peace. But inside, they have not been cured of the chronic disease of never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity when it comes to establishing a state of their own, 61 years after the UN Partition Plan.

An agreement on the "core issues" could strengthen weak leaders, but only symbolically. Sooner or later, control of Palestine could fall into Hamas hands. Intelligence sources in Israel are shocked at the transformation of Hamas gangs into a genuine military force in Gaza, complete with uniforms, arms, instructors and Iranian ideology that may soon seep into the West Bank. Collective punishments like electricity cuts are not going to stop them.

The Olmert administration is taking a risk by agreeing to make concessions on core issues in the conflict with the Palestinian Authority. An agreement to which only half the Palestinian people are committed will not be worth the paper it is written on.

Olmert must go to Annapolis as Mr. Peace, but play Mr. Security when he gets there. Annapolis is good, but not at any price.
/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=918272

danielius said:

Until the Israelis stop taking things that don't belong to them, there will be no peace.

of course, the Israelis have no legit claim on any land in the mideast.

HA HA HA

Whatever, Take comments out of context, and make them mean whatever you like. What I said remains true. Call me anti semitic, like the person who's article we are responding to... use any means you can, twist the truth any way you may. Until the Israelis start treating their neighbors as they would be treated, let them accept the consequences. You don't have to get into the new testament to rule out what they are doing. Disgusting crimes against humanity. What is the difference between Palestinians and any peoples who don't want their homeland invaded? If the USA were occupied by any force more superior we would become he most devious terrorists on the planet. In a heartbeat. The Palestinians are our true allies. We will realise it.... too late.

None of the Protestant kids had anything like it
What do you mean?
Do you mean none of Protestant kids had a country
where Protestants or Catholics were in majority?