Doing the Donkey

Of all the dance crazes to have emerged in the United States since 1945, from rock and roll on, the craziest, the most enduring, and the most consequential has got to be 'the donkey'.

Evolving from a fairly basic routine in the 50s, its steps have grown more and more outrageous with the years. Which perhaps explains why it has only recently, in the wake of NBC's brilliant parody of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's grilling by Republican senators (see my 14/2/13 post USrael: The Movie), acquired its current, catchy name.

Prior to that it was known only by the rather uninspired, somewhat clunky, term, sucking up to the Israel lobby.

As I've already noted, the donkey's steps have grown ever more outrageous as the 20th has given way to the 21st century. The fact is, these days, they're downright obscene, hence the final, definitive re-naming.

The United States Congress, where the very latest gyrations of the dance, choreographed by AIPAC, are performed by America's top dancers, has never seemed more aptly named:

"Douglas Bloomfield at The Jewish News informs us that 13,000 lobbyists from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) will descend upon Capitol Hill this weekend for their annual conference to order members of Congress not to cut $3 billion-plus in aid to Israel, even as automatic budget cuts are set to take place in a matter of days: 'At a time when sequestration is about to take a big bite out of the Pentagon budget, AIPAC will be sending thousands of its citizen lobbyists to Capitol Hill next week to make sure Israel is exempted from any spending cuts. This could prove a very risky strategy at a time when millions of Americans will be feeling the bite of the sequestration debacle, from the defense budget to the school lunch program. But not aid to Israel, which will be untouched if Israel gets its way.' People are coming up with all kinds of things that will need to be cut if (when) this sequester takes place. At Wired's Danger Room, for example, it was reported that cuts to the military budget 'will mean delays for veteran funerals at Arlington National Cemetery.' So grieving American families may have to wait longer to bury their loved ones who died fighting in Afghanistan, but Israel won't suffer one bit. Nothing could be more important than contributing money to the apartheid state." (AIPAC lobbyists to Congress: despite sequester, don't touch Israel aid, John Glaser, antiwar.com, 28/2/13)

"A bipartisan group of US senators is pushing a resolution declaring that if Israel attacks Iran 'in self-defense', the United States will join in the military assault on Israel's behalf. The chief sponsors of the resolution are Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Graham said the resolution will be non-binding and is neither a declaration of war nor an authorization to use military force. Non-binding resolutions are supposed to express the sentiment of Congress, as opposed to actually legislate policy. This one seems tied to placating AIPAC, which holds its annual conference in DC this weekend. Leaving aside the fact that under no reasonable definition of 'self-defense' could Israel conceivably justify an attack on Iran, the resolution is both an illustration of Congress's fealty to Israel, as well as their aggressiveness towards Iran." (Senators push resolution committing US to aid Israel in attack on Iran, John Glaser, antiwar.com, 28/2/13)