AIPAC 2009: The Movie http://blogs.jta.org/ENTRY_PERMALINK_HERE/aipac-2009-the-movie/ Watch JTA’s five-minute recap of this year’s annual AIPAC policy conference. en-us aeden@jta.org Copyright 2009 2009-05-08T;09:15:00-05:00 Comment by Melvyn I. Marquis zadimel@verizon.net Complaining about the “Lobbyists” is as old as the republic for anyone can be a “Lobbyist."Complaints about “statism” are utter nonsense, since there is little concentration of economic controls and planning in the federal government -at least until the present meltdown.Support for Israel by many in Congress and among private organizations is not grovelling.Petitioning Congress is as basic to our democracy as it is clear in our Constitution.Your apparent lack of understanding of our system of government, coupled by a strong bias against the Jewish State, tends to feed your hatred,which borders on the absurd. Complaining about the “Lobbyists” is as old as the republic for anyone can be a “Lobbyist."Complaints about “statism” are utter nonsense, since there is little concentration of economic controls and planning in the federal government -at least until the present meltdown.Support for Israel by many in Congress and among private organizations is not grovelling.Petitioning Congress is as basic to our democracy as it is clear in our Constitution.Your apparent lack of understanding of our system of government, coupled by a strong bias against the Jewish State, tends to feed your hatred,which borders on the absurd.

]]> 2012-05-23T;03:01:00-05:00 Comment by Dennis Spain dennis.spain@gmail.com Government of the Lobbyists, by the Lobbyists, for the Lobbyists! A celebration of Statism and the grab for power and its perks within the beltway...truly disgusting. Israel is not the 51st State and the national interests of the United States are not necessarily aligned with the national interests of Israel. To see our representatives grovel at AIPAC was disconcerting. At least Biden mentioned the Palestinians, a topic on the minds of American mothers and fathers who are being asked to donate their children to the meatgrinder of the Middle East. At some point you are going to have to deal with the so-called exceptionalism of Israel versus Palestine, just as the United States must learn to deal with its false conception of itself as an empire rather than a constitutional republic. The people of the United States are sick of the two squabbling Semitic races of the Middle East. Give up your pretensions of exclusive ownership of greater Israel and recognize a separate Palestinian State, and then for the love of mankind, respect the boundaries! Both sides! Government of the Lobbyists, by the Lobbyists, for the Lobbyists! A celebration of Statism and the grab for power and its perks within the beltway...truly disgusting.

Israel is not the 51st State and the national interests of the United States are not necessarily aligned with the national interests of Israel. To see our representatives grovel at AIPAC was disconcerting. At least Biden mentioned the Palestinians, a topic on the minds of American mothers and fathers who are being asked to donate their children to the meatgrinder of the Middle East.

At some point you are going to have to deal with the so-called exceptionalism of Israel versus Palestine, just as the United States must learn to deal with its false conception of itself as an empire rather than a constitutional republic.

The people of the United States are sick of the two squabbling Semitic races of the Middle East. Give up your pretensions of exclusive ownership of greater Israel and recognize a separate Palestinian State, and then for the love of mankind, respect the boundaries! Both sides!

]]> 2012-05-23T;03:01:00-05:00 Comment by Ross Nicholson TogetherinParis@gmail.com Allow Palestinians ‘freedom of movement’?  Six by six foot cells allow considerable freedom of movement, more than most of them deserve.  Are Arabs illiterate?  God has asked them to leave Israel.  The only freedom of movement they need is the freedom to dance their way out of God’s way, praying to God all the way that He not crush them utterly.  The Jews should not be quartered or ghettoed into only certain parts of Israel.  We have seen enough of that already.  Jewish people deserve open housing in the land promised to them by God Almighty.  Arab landholders should be paid a good price for their land at market value, measure for measure. Allow Palestinians ‘freedom of movement’?  Six by six foot cells allow considerable freedom of movement, more than most of them deserve.  Are Arabs illiterate?  God has asked them to leave Israel.  The only freedom of movement they need is the freedom to dance their way out of God’s way, praying to God all the way that He not crush them utterly. 
The Jews should not be quartered or ghettoed into only certain parts of Israel.  We have seen enough of that already.  Jewish people deserve open housing in the land promised to them by God Almighty.  Arab landholders should be paid a good price for their land at market value, measure for measure.

]]> 2012-05-23T;03:01:00-05:00 Comment by Majid Saatchi majidsaatchi@yahoo.com MEPs write to Obama to remove Iranian opposition group from blacklist Friday, 08 May 2009 Source: AFP* “In a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama, one hundred MEPs requested to follow the European example by withdrawing the Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) from its list of terrorist organizations. According to a press release by conservative Spanish MEP Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a Vice-president of the European Parliament, the letter was sent on Thursday. MEPs wrote that the organization that was withdrawn in January from the EU blacklist has “clearly demonstrated that it is a friend of the West, freedom and democracy and an enemy of fundamentalism.” The text is signed by 103 MEPs from 24 EU Member States from the main political groups in the Parliament, Conservative, Socialist, Liberal and Greens. After three years of legal battle, PMOI, the main Iranian opposition group, following a decision by the European Court of Justice was withdrawn from EU’s list of terrorist organizations in January. The organization founded in 1965, with the first goal of overthrowing the regime of the Shah and the Islamic regime, has always insisted that it had no terrorist activity.” *This is the English translation of the original report in French Photo: Thousands of supporters of the Iranian resistance demonstrated on January 27, 2009 during a rally in front of the European Union council headquarters in Brussels. The rally came one day after the EU Foreign Ministers decided to remove People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK) from the EU terrorist list. The European Union on 26 January 2009 removed PMOI, from its blacklist, bringing an end to a long legal battle. MEPs write to Obama to remove Iranian opposition group from blacklist
Friday, 08 May 2009
Source: AFP*
“In a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama, one hundred MEPs requested to follow the European example by withdrawing the Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) from its list of terrorist organizations.

According to a press release by conservative Spanish MEP Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a Vice-president of the European Parliament, the letter was sent on Thursday.

MEPs wrote that the organization that was withdrawn in January from the EU blacklist has “clearly demonstrated that it is a friend of the West, freedom and democracy and an enemy of fundamentalism.”

The text is signed by 103 MEPs from 24 EU Member States from the main political groups in the Parliament, Conservative, Socialist, Liberal and Greens.

After three years of legal battle, PMOI, the main Iranian opposition group, following a decision by the European Court of Justice was withdrawn from EU’s list of terrorist organizations in January.

The organization founded in 1965, with the first goal of overthrowing the regime of the Shah and the Islamic regime, has always insisted that it had no terrorist activity.”

*This is the English translation of the original report in French

Photo: Thousands of supporters of the Iranian resistance demonstrated on January 27, 2009 during a rally in front of the European Union council headquarters in Brussels. The rally came one day after the EU Foreign Ministers decided to remove People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK) from the EU terrorist list. The European Union on 26 January 2009 removed PMOI, from its blacklist, bringing an end to a long legal battle.

]]> 2012-05-23T;03:01:00-05:00