AIPAC: A Serious Problem.

Here's the best summary I've found on how AIPAC's influence subverts our Democracy.  And Israel is said to be the only democracy in the Middle East, and as such deserves our unquestioned loyalty and support.

I am anti-Likud, anti-AIPAC,  not anti-Semitic.  I suggest reading opinions found at the web sites of the Israel Policy Forum and "J" Street for the views of more progressive Jewish Americans. 

Israel is a democracy in name only, so long as it is ruled(as in not governed) by the far right wing Likud Party, headed by the likes of the corrupt Netanyahu who leads the fight against the rights of Palestinians, even those who are their own Arab citizens.  The Likud is intent on being certain that Israel remains essentially a Jewish theocracy, not a democracy. 

AIPAC is a group of Jewish American people who use their huge financial clout to buy off politicians for the sole purpose of influencing those politicians to avow and vote for any and all legislation/regulations which AIPAC supports on behalf of Israel. 

They threaten anyone who dares criticize them and/or Israel with the stamp of "Anti-Semite" or "Anti-Zionist", and they use their financial clout to support the election campaign of more pliable replacement politicians. That's enough to scare any pol who is more afraid of losing his/her job than standing up and doing the right thing.  Sorry to say it's clear that they, our whoring politicians,  are legion.

What's wrong with this picture?  Congress has the disapproval of a huge majority of Americans, 70-80%, yet about 80% of members of Congress and the Senate are returned to office in most elections.

The result of course is that AIPAC, as the unregistered agent of a foreign government, and which enjoys the tax avoiding status of a Not For Profit organization, is calling the shots when it comes to US foreign policy, at least with respect to the Middle East. 

The only people who can stop this are our own American citizens.  That's what a democratic republic, the United States of America, is all about.  We must elect politicians who are well grounded in loyalty to their own country, and with sufficient strength of character, to stand up and do the right thing.  I am not beating the tub for flag waving here, nor advocating for America as the embodiment of all that is right in the world, like those who subscribe to the self-aggrandizing American Exceptionalism meme.

I am simply saying that we, us, the American citizens, must stand up and do the right thing by voting for those Representatives and Senators who are strong enough to resist being bought and paid for by the likes of AIPAC and any and all deep pocket lobbies. 

Sadly, that requires a monumental change in how political campaigns are funded.  Citizens United must be overturned. 

The next president will likely have the opportunity to name one or two replacements for retiring Supreme Court justices.  A Democratic President could move the makeup of SCOTUS in the direction of it being a more progressive institution.  Yes, SCOTUS is comprised of a politically influenced group of human beings, regardless of the fine theory that it was intended to be objective, politically neutral, in its deliberations.

But that's another story, perhaps for another post someday. 

Leanderthal