Democrats and Republicans are more divided now than ever before. They are engaged in vicious tongue-lashing over nearly every social and legal issue, even the ones that have been traditionally bipartisan.
That is why it is odd, perhaps even disturbing, that what both houses and both parties agree on without question or hesitation is the most destructive lobby group in America, the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC).
AIPAC is trying to force the United States into a war with Iran. Iran has taken no action to threaten Israel, although the U.S. corporate media propagates the country has, and they pose no direct threat to the United States. Iran has neither a nuclear weapon, nor a desire to have one. The mistake Iran made was to insult Israel.
Congress is so far in bed with AIPAC that a simple insult can lead to demands that the United States go to war.
The presumed Iranian threat is nonexistent. We don’t see Iranian terrorists — in fact, Iran was the first country to open their borders for the United States to go into Afghanistan. The terrorists we do see are mostly from the Arabian Peninsula, yet the United States’ favorite bedfellow is Saudi Arabia.
According to former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and many other world leaders, AIPAC gave the order for the United States to invade Iraq, and we did, 10 years ago this week. Saddam Hussein was no threat to the United States, but he too insulted Israel. Sadly, thousands of innocent Americans and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis lost their lives for that insult. Trillions of dollars were lost as well.
The race to war reached a new level at the latest AIPAC convention in Washington, held March 3-5, a convention considered to be the most glorified event of the year. No other lobby group, including the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society or the National Science Foundation, can approach the magnitude of AIPAC.
During the convention, AIPAC gave Congress its marching orders. Senators Chuck Schumer, D-NY; Lindsey Graham, R-SC; and Robert Menendez, D-NJ, drafted joint resolution S.J. Res. 65. AIPAC led the House to draft HR 850. Both bills would quite literally give Israel a blank check, sanction medicine away from Iranian children and attach the United States to unjustified Israeli war drums against Iran.
The resolutions, though technically not binding, offer stipulations that the United States must officially classify Israel as a “strategic ally,” something that has never been done before. How is a country that continues to build illegal settlements on stolen land, condemned by the United States, such an ally?
Perhaps ally means a partner in drone technology and war profiteering.
The congressional love affair with AIPAC amounts to one of the most lethal threats to the stability and security of the United States.
AIPAC is about white privilege, Wall Street profits and wealth, not about religion. That is why Congress worships the lobby group.
Utah has strong ties to AIPAC. In the 2013 session, Curtis Bramble sponsored S.C.R. 4, also scripted by AIPAC. It is worse than S.J. Res. 65, as it goes a step further by refusing to acknowledge that Israel is an occupying country, and it combines church and state, calling for the Old Testament as an Israeli land deed.
In the 2012 General Session, moreover, S.J.R. 18 was written to strengthen Utah-Israeli relations, also referencing the denial of Palestinian rights. Former Rep. Julie Fisher’s 2010 “Divest from Iran” bill was nurtured by AIPAC.
It is crucial that we do not make the same mistake in Iran that we did in Iraq, which AIPAC would have us do. The consequences would be unimaginable and suffered by average Americans, not the white wealthy AIPAC lobby.