By Philip Giraldi
June 29, 2020 "Information
Clearing House" - Sometimes listening to the
morning news on television is a bit like entering into
an alternate universe. Last Wednesday, the day after
primary elections in New York State, CBS News reported
that New York Congressman Eliot Engel was “facing a
challenge” from Democratic Party challenger Jamaal
Bowman. NBC News reported that Engel was “trailing.” The
reality, according to the
New York Times tally of the results that morning was
that Bowman had beaten Engel by a margin to 60.9% versus
35.6% with more than 82% of votes counted. Even though
it posted the numbers, the Times felt compelled to
describe the apparently impending lopsided loss as if it
were something less than that, as a “stiff challenge”
for Engel.
The media deference to Engel derives from the fact
that he is a protected species, possibly the leading
Israel-firster in Congress. In 2003,
Engel supported the invasion of Iraq and in the
following year he organized a group of fellow
congressmen to demand cuts in the U.S. contribution to
the United Nations office that assists Palestinian
refugees. He attended the infamous Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu address to Congress in 2015
that many other Democratic lawmakers boycotted due to
the insult to President Obama and afterwards called
Netanyahu’s speech “compelling.”
Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Andrew Cuomo and
Nancy Pelosi all had endorsed Engel, who has been in
Congress for going on 32 years and currently heads the
House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Clinton explained that Engel “…is deeply committed
to working with our allies to maintain American
leadership on the global stage.” She was, of course,
referring to Israel.
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Engel was also endorsed by the Congressional
Black Caucus even though Bowman is black, a
demonstration of how politics in Washington works.
Engel will in any event likely be replaced to chair
the Foreign Affairs committee by a similar Jewish
Israel-firster Brad Sherman of California, but his
imminent defeat has already
sent a shockwave through the centers of
pro-Israel power in the United States.
Bowman, a progressive so-called Justice Democrat, is
on record as favoring cuts in aid for Israel based on
its human rights record. He has attacked Engel for being
on the dole financially from defense contractors and
also for being an active promoter of a military attack
on Iran, even though the Iranians pose no threat to the
United States. He has, in fact, made Israel something of
an issue in his campaign, pointing out that Engel had
been one of the few Democratic members of the House of
Representatives to vote against President Barack Obama’s
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015. The
JCPOA was the major foreign policy achievement of the
Obama Administration and it set up a framework to
prevent Iran from taking steps to produce a nuclear
weapon. It was strongly opposed by Israel and its
American lobby even though the agreement enhanced U.S.
national security.
In 2016, after the Obama administration abstained on
a United Nations resolution condemning Israeli
settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, Engel
responded with a House resolution condemning the U.N.
Engel often in his career has boasted about his close
relationship with Israel. Speaking at the 2018 national
convention of the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC), the U.S.’s principal Israeli lobby,
he boasted how “There’s a bunch of legislation
coming out of the Foreign Affairs Committee. I want to
tell you that I sit down with AIPAC on every piece of
legislation that comes out. I think it’s very, very
important. In the past 30 years I have attended 31
consecutive AIPAC conferences in March, I haven’t missed
one.” Some might suggest that serving in one
country’s legislature and working for the interests of
another country amounts to treason.
The other good news coming out of New York was that
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won her district with 72.6% of
the vote. AOC, controversial to be sure but no friend of
the Israel Lobby, was running against Michelle
Caruso-Cabrera, a CNBC reporter. As is often the case,
there is considerable back story to the two races and
that back story is Jewish money, lots of it, intended to
re-elect Engel and get rid of Ocasio-Cortez. Engel
received more that $1.5 million from one group alone,
the so-called
Democratic Majority for Israel and also obtained
large sums bundled by the AIPAC-tied group Pro-Israel
America as well as from other Jewish groups. AOC was
opposed by the not surprisingly well-funded
Caruso-Cabrera, whose money largely came from pro-Israel
and Jewish affiliated organizations
And more bad news appears to be coming from the
Hudson Valley district currently held by yet another
Israel-first congresswoman Representative Nita Lowey,
who is retiring. Mondaire
Jones, a gay Harvard-educated lawyer, has the lead
based on early returns. Jones calls himself a
progressive and he is unlikely to emerge as a
cheerleader for Israel if he is elected.
Representing parts of Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan
in New York City, Carolyn Maloney, who chairs the
Oversight and Reform Committee, is meanwhile maintaining
a small lead over Democratic challenger Suraj Patel.
Maloney describes herself
on her website as a strong supporter of Israel and
Jewish issues. In fact, she goes far beyond that,
actively sponsoring and otherwise promoting legislation
favorable to Israel and the Jewish community, most
recently being the sponsor of the waste of taxpayer
money in promoting the holocaust myth through H.R.943,
the Never Again Education Act. Maloney is hanging on to
a slim lead against Patel, though numerous postal and
absentee votes have not yet been counted and the outcome
could go either way. Nevertheless, it is undoubtedly a
shock to the Israel Lobby that a completely reliable
Maloney might be in danger of losing her seat.
To be sure, Congress continues to be
Israeli occupied territory, as Pat Buchanan once put
it. Last week 116 out of 198 Republican congressmen
signed a letter to President Donald Trump asserting
their support for Israel’s annexation of much of the
West Bank, due to start shortly. The letter stated that
the annexation was justified “based on the critical
premise that Israel should never be forced to compromise
its security,” indicating very clearly that actual U.S.
national interests had nothing to do with it.
What is surprising about the Republican letter is
that it was not unanimous, and the loss of Engel,
replacement of Lowey and possible defeat of Maloney
could be indications of a real shift among voters
regarding what has been an assiduously cultivated
overwhelmingly positive view of the Jewish State. Recent
opinion polls suggest that a majority of Americans do
not support either Israeli expansion or its form of
apartheid.
Israel is feeling somewhat vulnerable. Its Lobby
stalwarts in the media and in politics are working hard
to disengage the current anti-racism turmoil in the U.S.
from any mention of Israel, which trained American
police in their “anti-terror” tactics. The Jewish state
also practices a far more virulent and brutal racism
than anything prevailing in America, something that is
becoming increasingly clear to the public. It is early
days to be hopeful, but the New York primary election
results, coming as they do from a state where Jewish
groups wield enormous power, just might be an indication
that some things are about to change.
Philip M. Giraldi is a former CIA
counter-terrorism specialist and military
intelligence officer who served nineteen years
overseas in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain. He
was the CIA Chief of Base for the Barcelona Olympics
in 1992 and was one of the first Americans to enter
Afghanistan in December 2001. Phil is Executive
Director of the Council for the National Interest, a
Washington-based advocacy group that seeks to
encourage and promote a U.S. foreign policy in the
Middle East that is consistent with American values
and interests. - "Source"
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