{"id":29620,"date":"2013-03-05T13:44:58","date_gmt":"2013-03-05T12:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=29620"},"modified":"2013-03-05T13:44:58","modified_gmt":"2013-03-05T12:44:58","slug":"aipac-conference-promotes-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/aipac-conference-promotes-war\/","title":{"rendered":"AIPAC Conference Promotes War"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Stephen Lendman<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rinf.com\"><strong>RINF Alternative News<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-29621\" alt=\"aipac\" src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/aipac.jpeg\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/aipac.jpeg 400w, https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/aipac-75x56.jpeg 75w, https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/aipac-133x100.jpeg 133w, https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/aipac-383x287.jpeg 383w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On March 3, AIPAC&#8217;s 2013 conference began. It &#8220;Celebrat(es) 65 Years of Friendship.&#8221; It&#8217;s nothing to be admired.<\/p>\n<p>It supports war, occupation, exploitation and dominance. It deplores peace, equity and justice.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s contemptuous of fundamental human rights. It believes Jews are God&#8217;s chosen people. It thinks Arabs are subhumans. It favors eliminating them altogether. War is its instrument of choice.<\/p>\n<p>Washington again was venue. A rogue&#8217;s gallery of participants attended. Warmongering speeches were featured. AIPAC does it annually.<\/p>\n<p>It disseminates disinformation, lies and hate. It viciously attacks opponents. It maliciously calls Iran &#8220;the world&#8217;s leading state sponsor of terrorism and is racing toward a nuclear weapons capability.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It lied saying so. No nation tops US and Israeli state terrorism. They menace humanity.<\/p>\n<p>AIPAC lobbied successfully to impose lawless sanctions on Iran. It wants Tehran&#8217;s government toppled. It manufactures threats to promote fear.<\/p>\n<p>It wants unchallenged Israeli regional dominance. It favors no-holds-barred belligerence to achieve it.<\/p>\n<p>Expose AIPAC for what it is. It menaces freedom and peace. It embraces war. Its conferences glorify it.<\/p>\n<p>US legislators are heavily pressured. AIPAC wants Washington&#8217;s diplomatic, military and economic support if Israel attacks Iran preemptively.<\/p>\n<p>AIPAC wants war. Doing so is lawless, madness and self-destructive.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;America must make clear that it will act to prevent Iran from achieving the capability to build a nuclear weapon at a time of its choosing,&#8221; it says.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Contain(ing) a nuclear Iran&#8221; is inadequate. US policy must reject any possibility of Tehran developing nuclear weapons. All options must be considered, including &#8220;military action.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Economic sanctions must be &#8220;accelerated&#8221; and &#8220;crippling.&#8221; Washington should do whatever it takes to prevent a nuclear Iran.<\/p>\n<p>AIPAC&#8217;s a destructive, malevolent, evil force. It&#8217;s heading Washington for war. Hawkish speakers had their say.<\/p>\n<p>AIPAC president Michael Kassen welcomed participants. He lied saying Israel is threatened. He called America its most reliable ally.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Today, that relationship is more important than ever before,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Are we doing everything we can to ensure that America will stand by the side of Israel now and always?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For the sake of the United States; for the sake of Israel, our only answer can be and must be &#8216;Yes!&#8217; &#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s concerned about America&#8217;s &#8220;growing allure of isolationism.&#8221; It threatens US\/Israeli relations. It&#8217;s &#8220;extremely dangerous&#8221; for Israel&#8217;s security and well-being.<\/p>\n<p>America&#8217;s leadership is changing, he warned. Over 40% of US legislators in recent years are new. Many never visited Israel. Many others never travelled abroad.<\/p>\n<p>Many on congressional committees have no foreign policy experience. He stressed reaching beyond AIPAC&#8217;s traditional Jewish base of support.<\/p>\n<p>Silence greeted his warnings. Standing ovations followed his affirmation of US support.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Oren is Israel&#8217;s US ambassador. He deplores peace. He prioritizes war. He disgraces himself in the process. He opened AIPAC&#8217;s conference. He addressed its plenary session.<\/p>\n<p>He lied saying &#8220;diplomacy hasn&#8217;t worked and sanctions haven&#8217;t stopped the Iranian nuclear program.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We seem to be negotiating with ourselves,&#8221; he added. &#8220;What is the price of inaction,&#8221; he asked?<\/p>\n<p>He wants Israel declared a &#8220;major strategic ally.&#8221; AIPAC prioritizes it. Getting it will be unique. No other nation has it. It may exempt Israel from sequestration cuts. It advance the ball for war.<\/p>\n<p>In Foreign Policy&#8217;s May\/June 2011 edition, Oren headlined &#8220;The Ultimate Ally,&#8221; saying:<\/p>\n<p>Washington &#8220;has no better friend in the world than Israel.&#8221; Roots are longstanding. Most Americans support it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;America needs Israel now more than ever.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Israel has always sided with the United States on major global issues.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig called Israel &#8220;the largest American aircraft carrier in the world that cannot be sunk, does not carry even one American soldier, and is located in a critical region for American national security.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Israel not only enhances America&#8217;s defenses &#8211; it also saves American lives,&#8221; said Oren.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In return for its aid to Israel, the United States receives not only an armed but an innovative ally, enhancing America&#8217;s military edge.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;ISRAEL IS AMONG THE FEW COUNTRIES in the world &#8211; and the only Middle Eastern state &#8211; to consistently stand alongside the United States on strategic issues. &#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A nuclear-armed Iran will imperil every pro-Western Middle Eastern state and ignite a nuclear arms race in an inherently unstable region.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Israel remains the region&#8217;s only credible foil to Iran.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Israel is the only Middle Eastern state never to oppose America on major international issues.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Its benefits are &#8220;incalculable.&#8221; They &#8220;outweigh any price.&#8221; It&#8217;s a &#8220;partner par excellence.&#8221; It&#8217;s &#8220;America&#8217;s ultimate ally.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Washington needs Israel now more than ever, said Oren. He&#8217;s instructed to repeat it ad nauseam. He wants &#8220;major strategic ally&#8221; status.<\/p>\n<p>He wants America&#8217;s support for war. He wants its independent government toppled. He wants its major regional rival eliminated. He wants a subservient pro-Western vassal state replacing it.<\/p>\n<p>Netanyahu&#8217;s home in Israel. He repeated a familiar theme. He said Iran uses nuclear talks to buy time. It &#8220;continue(s) enriching nuclear material for an atomic bomb and is indeed getting closer to this goal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;(I)n the coming days, I will continue my efforts to unify and galvanize forces ahead of the major national and international challenges that we face.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dennis Ross and Eliot Abrams participated in a Sunday AIPAC panel discussion. They&#8217;re hawkish pro-Israeli flacks. They&#8217;re unindicted war criminals. They claimed Iran deceived P5+1 countries.<\/p>\n<p>Ross called its strategy &#8220;rope-a-dope.&#8221; It&#8217;s buying time. He urged P5+1 countries to &#8220;go for an endgame strategy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He wants Iran made an offer it can&#8217;t refuse. He wants an alternative stressed if it does. He wants Washington and other P5+1 countries to be more aggressive. He has war in mind.<\/p>\n<p>When Netanyahu and Obama meet, they&#8217;ll define &#8220;prevention.&#8221; They want &#8220;better understanding of when (it) fails and force becomes inevitable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Abrams favors it. He accused Iran of advancing its nuclear weapons program. No evidence whatever suggests it. Abrams knows it. He lied.<\/p>\n<p>He added more. He said Tehran helps Assad in Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon. He ignored Washington&#8217;s support for anti-Syrian government terrorists. He said nothing about its regional menace. He focused on belligerence and bald-faced lies.<\/p>\n<p>Outgoing Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke. He keynoted the conference. He called for Washington to establish a &#8220;regional security framework.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He wants one able to unite regional countries around the &#8220;joint challenges of radical Islamic terror, border security, missile defense and Iran.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He suggested anti-Iranian sanctions and diplomacy failed. He doesn&#8217;t believe they&#8217;ll produce &#8220;a moment of truth in which the ayatollahs will give up their nuclear program.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He wants all options considered. &#8220;(A)nd we expect all who say it to mean it,&#8221; he stressed. We in Israel, he added, &#8220;mean it. Let me repeat &#8211; we mean it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He left little ambiguity where he stands. Netanyahu is likeminded. So is AIPAC. It&#8217;s openly stated priority is obtaining &#8220;major strategic ally&#8221; status. Its equally clear one is war on Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.<\/p>\n<p>His new book is titled &#8220;Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanII.html<\/p>\n<p>Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On March 3, AIPAC&#8217;s 2013 conference began. It &#8220;Celebrat(es) 65 Years of Friendship.&#8221; It&#8217;s nothing to be admired. It supports war, occupation, exploitation and dominance. It deplores peace, equity and justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[56],"class_list":{"0":"post-29620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest-news","8":"tag-stephen-lendman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}