Aside from AIPAC, Israel has two enormous guns buying leverage for it inside U.S. politics-- mobster Sheldon Adelson on the GOP side and another shady billionaire, Haim Saban, on the Democratic side. The two shovel out immense sums of money to politicians to keep Israeli national interests front and center above even American national interests. We've gone overAdelson ad nauseum here and I think most DWT readers know he's married to an Israeli and that he's a major figure in Israeli politics through ownership of large right-wing media properties. Here in the U.S., he and his wife have given millions and millions of dollars to right-wing candidates who pledge fealty to Israeli interests.On the other side of the aisle, the Israelis have a dual citizen, billionaire Haim Saban, making sure Democrats stay as loyal to Israel as Adelson does with the GOP. He and his wife Cheryl, have poured millions of dollars-- at least $20 million-- into Democratic Party politics with huge contributions to the DNC, DCCC and DSCC and directly to pro-Israeli candidates. I went to one of his lavish fundraising events with then-state Senator Adam Schiff, who ran as a progressive and, after an election he won with very generous Saban help, joined the Blue Dogs and then became a vocal supporter of Bush's unjustifiable attack on Iraq. Haim also funded-- at least $175,000 directly-- a shady SuperPAC, Committee to Elect Effective Valley Congressman, to back NeoCon Henry Waxman against Brad Sherman. Saban has given immense sums of money to Eric Cantor (R-VA) and to powerful Democratic players like Steve Israel (D-NY), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Harry Reid (D-NV), the Clintons, and, of course, many thousands to Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Chuck, the guy Ken and I went to high school with (James Madison in Brooklyn) who is now New York's senior senator. In the video up top, he was demagoguing Sunday night at the OHEL Children’s Home and Family Services dinner against President Obama's outreach to Iran for a peaceful settlement. I'm sure Haim and Cheryl were writing him another check."Democrats and Republicans are going to work together to see that we don’t let up on these sanctions… until Iran gives up not only its nuclear weapons, but all nuclear weapon capability, all enriched uranium. Every time the Arab world, the Palestinians, have risen against us, we have risen to defeat them. The one existential threat to Israel’s existence is a nuclear Iran." Us? By "us" he doesn't mean the U.S. He means the foreign country that strafed and torpedoed the USS Liberty killing and wounding over 200 American servicemen when they felt it was in their national interest to do so. Who's side do you think Schumer was on then? The same side as Saban and Adelson, no doubt… "us" was not U.S.A couple weeks ago I got a creepy call from someone claiming to have gone to high school with me and saying he got my [unlisted] phone number from an alumni publication. He caught me between posts and I didn't mind talking with him for what stetted into 30-40 minutes. Unfortunately, the discussion veered off towards politics and he seemed sickened when I told him I didn't vote for Obama. But he got really truculent when I denounced Schumer. I knew I wouldn't be hearing from him again. Yesterday, Ken told me the same guy called him out of the blue as well. Ken has a better memory than I do-- photographic in fact… but he had as much recollection of our former classmate as I did. And he was smart enough to say goodbye before they could get into talking about Chuck Schumer.Schumer is, along with Majority Whip Dick Durbin and Conference Secretary Patty Murray ranks just under Harry Reid among Senate Dems. For him to rush off the reservation to score a few cheap shots against Obama's carefully crafted initiative in Iran is nothing short of outrageous. He's backing Netanyahu instead of America. And he's not the only one. Ben Cardin and Steny Hoyer were right there with him expressing distrust in the Obama/Kerry deal. This doesn't augur well for a peaceful settlement.
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry were successful in pressuring Congress to hold off on new sanctions before last weekend’s Geneva negotiations. During the talks, Kerry reportedly warned that new sanctions would be coming down the pike if no deal was struck to pressure Iran.But a deal was struck, and now the Obama administration has to watch out for new Congressional efforts to sanction Iran-- which would scuttle the deal reached to curb Iran’s enrichment program in exchange for some relief from economic pressure.In a previous statement, Schumer said that the “disproportionality of this agreement makes it more likely that Democrats and Republicans will join together and pass additional sanctions when we return in December.” Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid called the Iran deal an “important first step” but did not fully close off the possibility that new sanctions would be enacted before the six-month deal with Iran is up.Some Democrats, like the hawkish Rep. Eliot Engel, said that while he doesn’t trust Iran, the deal should be tested. A more likely scenario than immediate sanctions-- which Obama could veto-- are new sanctions that would go into effect in six months, which would up the pressure on the Obama administration to reach a far-reaching deal with Iran.
