WHY DO WE SUPPORT ISRAEL NO MATTER WHAT?

From AlterNet:

AIPAC's Dangerous Grip on Washington

AIPAC is the leading player in what is sometimes referred to as "The Israel Lobby" -- a coalition that includes major Jewish groups, neoconservative intellectuals and Christian Zionists. With its impressive contacts among Hill staffers, influential grassroots supporters and deep connections to wealthy donors, AIPAC is the lobby's key emissary to Congress. But in many ways, AIPAC has become greater than just another lobby; its work has made unconditional support for Israel an accepted cost of doing business inside the halls of Congress. AIPAC's interest, Israel's interest and America's interest are today perceived by most elected leaders to be one and the same. Christian conservatives increasingly aligned with AIPAC demand unwavering support for Israel from their Republican leaders. (In mid-July, 3,000-plus evangelicals came to town for the first annual "Christian United for Israel" summit.) And Democrats are equally concerned about alienating Jewish voters and Jewish donors -- long a cornerstone of their party. Some in Congress are deeply uncomfortable with AIPAC's militant worldview and heavyhanded tactics, but most dare not say so publicly.

"The Bush Administration is bad enough in tolerating measures they would not accept anywhere else but Israel," says Henry Siegman, the former head of the American Jewish Congress and a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. "But the Congress, if anything, is urging the Administration on and criticizing them even at their most accommodating. When it comes to the Israeli-Arab conflict, the terms of debate are so influenced by organized Jewish groups, like AIPAC, that to be critical of Israel is to deny oneself the ability to succeed in American politics."

And

Ironically, during the 2004 campaign Dean called on the United States to be an "evenhanded" broker in the Middle East. That position enraged party leaders such as House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, who signed a letter attacking his remarks. "It was designed to send a message: No one ever does this again," says M.J. Rosenberg of the center-left Israel Policy Forum. "And no one has. The only safe thing to say is: I support Israel." In April a representative from AIPAC called Congresswoman Betty McCollum's vote against a draconian bill severely curtailing aid to the Palestinian Authority "support for terrorists."

Click here for the rest.

There are a few rare exceptions, of course, but the two inescapable rules of American politics are that, in order to be elected, you have profess your allegiance to the Christian God, and, in order to stay in office, you have to profess your allegiance to the state of Israel. No matter what it does. Neutrality is simply not an option. When IDF tanks fire into crowds of rock throwing Palestinian teenagers, you have to brand those youths "terrorists," and proclaim that artillery shells and high calliber machine gun slugs are what they deserve.

The lobbying scandal that has revealed to the whole country the outrageously high levels of corruption literally usurping democracy itself isn't simply about corporate cash. There are other powerful interests with truckloads of money, and the Israel Lobby is easily the most powerful of them. It's not simply about policy, either. I feel pretty certain that if Real Art had as big of an audience as, say, Eschaton or the Daily Kos, my condemnation of Israel's many misdeeds would have me branded an anti-Semite. To the Israel Lobby, there is no difference between Mel Gibson's psychotic and drunken ramblings about the Jews being responsible for all war, and simple criticism of one of the world's most belligerent superpowers. To them, there is no difference between Holocaust denial and rejection of the oppression of Palestinians. To them, Jews and the state of Israel are one and the same.

AIPAC and other pro-Israel lobby groups are in Karl Rove's league when it comes to smearing their opponents. That's why mainstream news coverage is all Israel all the time. That's why most Democrats, even those who deplore the Iraq occupation, support Israel's war of aggression against Lebanon--it's all a combination of bad information, propaganda, and intimidation.

We are so fucked on this.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$