".... What's new is the serious objection being voiced in the US government, not merely by the president and his administration, but by members of Congress, including John Kerry, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and several prominent Jewish lawmakers, such as Carl Levin, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee; Howard Berman, chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee; and influential representatives Henry Waxman and Robert Wexler.
When they met recently with Netanyahu, they made him "very, very aware of the concerns of the administration and Congress," according to one Congressional aide. They pressed Netanyahu on the need to stop building in settlements and rejected his call for Palestinian reciprocity on terrorism as a precondition. (Another sign of the change: A Congressional delegation visiting Israel actually discussed, in private, the possibility of prohibiting Israel from using American weapons in the West Bank.)
After so many years of AIPAC dominance, it would be too much to expect all Democrats to back Obama on the settlements question. There are still plenty in Congress who toe the AIPAC line. ...
But the fact that there is any debate at all on this issue in Congress marks a sea change in Washington, brought about by a perfect storm of converging factors.....
Less obviously, there is a remarkable change in attitude among American Jews. Well, it's less obvious to those who get all their information from the mass media, where this change is far too little
reported. But to those of us who have been working in the once-tiny American-Jewish peace movement, the growth of that movement all around us is nothing short of astounding. ......."
No comments:
Post a Comment