Pro-War Organization Hides Its Pro-Israel Agenda By Philip Weiss August 23rd, 2007 Last night Ari Fleischer was on Hardball speaking up for Freedomâs Watch, a new organization that is buying ads to support George Bushâs war âplansâ in Iraq. Fleischer warns that if we donât stay the course, the whole region will âexplode.â According to the Washington Post, two of the three leaders of Freedomâs Watch, including Fleischer, are associated with the Republican Jewish Coalition (the third is involved with the Holocaust Memorial). Its donors, per the Post, include three other members of the Republican Jewish Coalition and Gary Erlbaum, a leader of the conservative Jewish community in Philadelphia. Thatâs a lot of right wing Jews. I talked to Erlbaum a year ago. Israel is front and center for him. Three years ago I heard Fleischer talking to a Jewish audience in Cincinnati, urging them to vote for George Bush in the upcoming election. Fleischer made explicit pro-Israel appeals. He said that his mother was a Democrat who opposed Bush but had softened because the Iraq war had been good for Israelâs security. He said that he was proud of the fact that in all his statements on Israel/Palestine while White House press secretary, he had never used the term âcycle of violence.â I.e., he masked the endless brutalization there, as if Israel is getting somewhere by bulldozing houses and performing messy assassinations that kill little children, too. There is nothing wrong with rightwing Israel-centric Jews getting involved in American politics. Let 100 flowers bloom. But I want their agendas explicit. Itâs clear to me that several members of the new group care about Israelâs security as a reason for American military engagement in the Middle East. They should say so upfront. As it is, the Freedomâs Watch website has imagery of the eagle wrapped in a flag; its big new ad shows an Iraq War veteran who continues to support the disastrous war because of 9/11, and no one on the site is talking about Israel. Fleischer didnât mention it last night in his analysis of the regional fallout if we left Iraq. This is dangerous dishonesty. As Glenn Greenwald wrote in A Tragic Legacy, the U.S. might well be willing to fight to defend Israelâs security; but the people have a right to know that. If Americans are being induced to support wars not in American interest but in Israelâs, and if American lives and treasure are being squandered in wars justified by false premises, by a hidden agenda, they will realize that at some pointâ¦When the realization begins to dawn that at least one substantial factor as to why America waged Middle Eastern war(s) is because influential individuals with an overarching devotion to Israel pushed for war against Israelâs enemies, then an anti-Israeli backlash is highly likely to occur. Last night Mike Barnicle played the Freedomâs Watch ad with the soldierâs appeal to stay the course; then asked Fleischer who the soldier was. Fleischer said he didnât know. But he said that when a soldier dies in Iraq, everyone in America grieves with the family. This is b.s.; there is a real difference between supporting the war from armchairs and going to Iraq. The next guest on the show, a veteran opposed to the war, said that Fleischerâs lack of sincerity was exposed by the fact that he didnât know the soldierâs name. I agree. And smell a rat. Fleischerâs group ought to be upfront about its concerns. Rather than manipulating public opinion. Ari Fletcher Plays Hardball <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/siB9QyMOFpE"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/siB9QyMOFpE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2007/08/new-pro-iraq-wa.htm
Are you also going to require the many liberals who oppose the war simply because they hate George Bush to also be explicit about their agenda? Or does this only apply to republicans?
I am against bush because his ACTIONS are based upon hate and violence and greed. No sane and balanced person can sit by as WMD and destruction are spread around the world by the racist war machine (it's ok to kill people who have a different skin color or language tham you)/
Most Liberals voted in favor of the war. It's just that some of them have given up hope on Iraq and want to be ready for the next adventure in Iran. Both the Republican and the Democratic party are largely Jewish controlled. Of course, there are some exceptions such as Ron Paul.