Reply to Israelis Wipe out Entire Gaza Neighborhood

Forum Index » Political Discussion

Reply to "Israelis Wipe out Entire Gaza Neighborhood"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]How is the international community so powerless and impotent against Israel. They are able to levy sanctions against Russia, a nuclear power, a former superpower. What does AIPAC have on our government ???[/quote]

I know this was addressed with some credible evidence as to who's "buying whom."

But why is it so hard to understand that our political leaders are "bought" by influential people?

Even at the local level, there are local businesses with well known owners  supporting candidates.  As you move up the political ladder, your supporters have more and more money to move THEIR issues forward.  tit for tat, I say

So why is it surprising that AIPAC has influence?

http://www.aipac.org/act/attend-events/policy-conference/videos/2013/speeches/kassen
speech by Kassen, the current AIPAC pres

where he worked - http://www.nb.com/_layouts/www/index.aspx

Q&A with Kassen
http://www.jewishledger.com/2012/03/q-a-with-michael-kassen/

very telling - from the Q&A -

[quote]Q: It is common to focus on AIPAC’s lobbying efforts in Washington. But does lobbying work the other way around? Does Congress have any impact in determining AIPAC’s priorities or direction? 
A: We work very closely with Congress and with the Administration. The belief of the founders of AIPAC – and this does not pertain only to AIPAC, but more broadly as well – is that the House of Representatives was always envisioned as the people’s chamber. The Senate was seen as more elite and aristocratic and populated by legislators not elected by popular vote; Congress, broadly, is supposed to be the voice of the people. The right to petition your government is enshrined in the Constitution. That’s a key building-block of American democracy that offers all kinds of groups a platform.
If you were to talk to the vast majority of Congress-members, they would tell you that AIPAC is a great educational resource that helps them be more knowledgeable about what’s going on in Israel and the Mid-East. We do that pretty well, but not perfectly, and we have to keep getting better at it.
In part because of what AIPAC and other pro-Israel organizations do, and because of the natural interest of many in Congress, there are lots of legislative initiatives that come from representatives. For example, someone could put forward an amendment to the foreign-aid bill that would cut off some or all of U.S. funding to Egypt unless they can better protect the natural-gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan. I don’t think AIPAC would support something like that if it were proposed. As an organization, we hardly ever get behind an initiative that doesn’t have broad bi-partisan support.
Congress sees us as good educational resource. It’s very common for members of Congress to ask our staff or our lay leaders – especially our board members who lobby in Washington several times a year – for information on a certain Israeli policy or action.[/quote][/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics