Monday, August 17, 2015

Israeli Desires vs American Interests

The most bizarre phenomenon in the annals of political science has to be the spectacle of the elected representatives of 'the world's greatest democracy' consistently choosing Israeli desires over American interests.

Next month's congressional vote on Obama's Iran nuclear agreement will pit an Israel lobby-funded and -manipulated US Congress against America's president. The outcome of the vote will determine just who is the most powerful political leader in the US today, its democratically-elected president, Barack Obama, or Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu.

Read on:

Congress' Test of Allegiance: US or Israel?

by John V. Whitbeck

"Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has instructed the US Congress to reject an international agreement constraining Iran's nuclear program and to humiliate the sitting US president, thus testing where the primary allegiance of most members of Congress lies, with the US or Israel.

"The choice facing members of the US Congress in September's 'disapproval' votes could scarcely be clearer and has little to do with the merits of the international agreement reached on July 14 with respect to Iran's nuclear program...

"Since this... agreement is obviously good news for the world, the UN Security Council has unanimously approved it and only one of the UN's 193 member states, Israel, is currently opposed to it.

"The choice before members of Congress is thus a clear and simple one: Do they owe their primary allegiance and loyalty to the United States of America or to Israel? 

"The great majority of members of Congress have traditionally seen less personal career risk in favoring Israeli desires over American interests than in favoring American interests over Israeli desires. There has been good empirical evidence to support this self-serving calculation. Several prominent and patriotic American politicians have lost their reelection bids as a result of the perception that they put American residents ahead of Israeli desires, and it has become a truism in American politics that 'no one has ever lost an election for being too pro-Israel'.

"However, the choice facing members of Congress has never been so clear-cut and consequential as in the imminent 'disapproval' votes on the Iran nuclear agreement.

"At first glance, it appeared that President Obama had outsmarted the Republican Congressional leadership by getting them to agree that approval of American participation in any Iran nuclear agreement would not require an inconceivable two-thirds majority of the Senate but, rather, only a post-veto one-third minority approval in one of the two houses of Congress.

"However, particularly since the influential Democratic Senator from New York Chuck Schumer, poised to become the next Democratic leader in the Senate, has confirmed his personal allegiance to Israel and consequent intention to vote for 'disapproval', it is by no means certain that even one third of one house of Congress will choose the United States over Israel.

"What if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does defeat President Barack Obama in the American Congress? How might Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry react to a defeat more crushing and humiliating than any defeat ever suffered by any American president and secretary of state?" (12/8/15)

You can read the rest of Whitbeck's analysis at consortiumnews.com

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