Israel Lobby Watch
EI's Israel Lobby Watch section offers news about the tactics of pro-Israel lobby organisations around the world, analysis of attempts to rewrite history with an Israeli narrative, international reactions to pressure, and the effect of the lobby's work on domestic political life. Quality submissions are welcomed.
Israel's fabricated rocket crisis
Jim Holstun and Joanna Tinker, The Electronic Intifada, 6 January 2009
We have heard, and we will continue to hear, a droning litany of "Qassams! Qassams! Qassams!" The repetition will be difficult to resist, but for all of us who remember the reiterated US lies about Iraq of 2002-2003, whether with pride for our skepticism or shame for our credulity, a good first step might be for us to think "WMDs!" every time they say "Qassams!" Like the US Coalition of the Willing, Israel's Operation Cast Lead has not let the absence of actual provocation get in the way of a good bloodbath. Jim Holstun and Joanna Tinker analyze for The Electronic Intifada. [MORE]
Jewish "refugee" lobby seeks to eclipse Palestinian losses
Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 4 December 2008
A broad coalition of Jewish lobby groups has made a series of breakthroughs this year in its campaign to link the question of justice for millions of Palestinian refugees with justice for Jews who left Arab states in the wake of Israel's establishment 60 years ago. Referring to these Jews as the "forgotten refugees" and claiming that their plight is worse than that of exiled Palestinians, the campaign has scored political successes in recent months in Washington, London and Brussels. Jonathan Cook reports. [MORE]
Obama adviser Dennis Ross's dodgy record
Michael Flynn, The Electronic Intifada, 4 November 2008
GENEVA (IPS) - With the 2008 presidential campaign at its end, pundits have begun to discuss in earnest what expected winner Barack Obama's administration might look like. An important piece of evidence is Obama's campaign team, which largely escaped the harsh scrutiny that his opponent's lobbyist-laden team received. [MORE]
Iran resolution shelved in rare defeat for "Israel Lobby"
Jim Lobe, The Electronic Intifada, 29 September 2008
WASHINGTON (IPS) - In a significant and highly unusual defeat for the so-called "Israel Lobby," the Democratic leadership of the US House of Representatives has decided to shelve a long-pending, albeit non-binding, resolution that called for President George W. Bush to launch what critics called a blockade against Iran. [MORE]
Neo-cons, ex-Israeli diplomats push Islamophobic video
Ali Gharib and Eli Clifton, The Electronic Intifada, 24 September 2008
WASHINGTON (IPS) - A group of hard-line United States neo-conservatives and former Israeli diplomats, among others, are behind the mass distribution, ahead of the November US presidential election, of a controversial DVD that critics have denounced as Islamophobic. The group, the Endowment for Middle East Truth, is working with another organization called the Clarion Fund, which produced the 60-minute video and is itself tied closely to an Israeli organization called Aish Hatorah. [MORE]
Neocon flap highlights Jewish divide
Daniel Luban and Jim Lobe, The Electronic Intifada, 1 August 2008
WASHINGTON (IPS) - A mushrooming media controversy pitting neoconservatives against a prominent Jewish-American political commentator could mark a new stage in the growing battle over who speaks for the US Jewish community on foreign policy issues, particularly regarding the Middle East. [MORE]
US hawks belie Iran's "existential threat" to Israel
Gareth Porter, The Electronic Intifada, 1 July 2008
WASHINGTON (IPS) - New arguments by analysts close to Israeli thinking in favor of US strikes against Iran cite evidence of Iranian military weakness in relation to the US and Israel and even raise doubts that Iran is rushing to obtain such weapons at all. The new arguments contradict Israel's official argument that it faces an "existential threat" from an Islamic extremist Iranian regime determined to get nuclear weapons.
[MORE]
Christian Zionist gathering mired in controversy
Bill Berkowitz, The Electronic Intifada, 17 June 2008
OAKLAND, California (IPS) - The battle lines over Pastor John Hagee have been drawn, redrawn, and are no doubt being drawn again as this is being written. The San Antonio, Texas-based mega-preacher with the multi-million-dollar empire has always been controversial, but these days, the pastor is a lightning rod for critics. [MORE]
Pledging allegiance to AIPAC
Khody Akhavi, The Electronic Intifada, 10 June 2008
WASHINGTON, 9 June (IPS) - With the Iranian nuclear "threat" in the crosshairs, discussion of Palestinians or a Syrian-Israeli detente was virtually non-existent. But then again, one should not expect many overtures for peace when attending the annual policy conference for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). [MORE]
Israeli ambassador to the UK's PR problem
David Thomson, The Electronic Intifada, 4 June 2008
It would appear that the ambitions of the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom far outweigh his abilities as recently acquired documents from the University of Edinburgh reveal his embassy bungled a public lecture and then tried to lay the blame elsewhere. Ron Prosor became the new Israeli Ambassador in November 2007, arriving with a fresh enthusiasm for the promotion of Israel. They'll be "coming out of London to make the case for Israel," the Israeli daily Haaretz reports he told embassy staff. [MORE]
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