Congressman Tells How Israel Lobby AIPAC Smeared Him as Anti-Semitic for Voting Against Iraq War

#StopAIPAC #BDS

Saying that Israel and the Israeli lobbying group AIPAC considered the US invasion of the Middle East a top priority, Virginia Congressman Jim Moran describes how he refused to bow to AIPAC's demand that he vote for the war, for which he was then subjected to a campaign portraying him as anti-semitic.

The overthrow of Saddam and other Arab governments has been a goal of Israel for decades, articulated in the paper by Oded Yinon entitled "A Strategy or Israel for the Nineteen Eighties." Yinon wrote: 

"Iraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other, is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel’s targets. Its dissolution is even more important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In the short run it is Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest threat to Israel." 

In 1996 future Defense Department officials of the Bush administration published a paper intended as a policy guide for Israeli prime minister Netanyahu, "A Clean Break," which echoed Oded Yinon's call for Iraq, Syria, and other Arab governments to be overthrown, a task which could only be accomplished by American forces. The primary author was David Wurmser, Middle East Adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney. Another co-author was Douglas Feith, Bush's under secretary of Defense for Policy. Wurmser wrote:

 "Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq — an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right — as a means of foiling Syria’s regional ambitions." 

On September 4, 2004, the Washington Post reported that FBI counterintelligence investigators had questioned Wurmser, along with Douglas Feith, Harold Rhode, and Paul Wolfowitz about the passing of classified information to Ahmad Chalabi and/or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

AIPAC has taken great pains to conceal its role in lobbying for the Iraq War.  Marshall Wittmann, AIPAC’s communications director, told the New York Times (as reported in a Lobelog.com expose' )

“To remove any misinformation or confusion, AIPAC took no position whatsoever on the Iraq war, nor did we lobby on this issue — this is an entirely false and misleading argument.”

Watch the full documentary "How Israel partisans buy U.S. elections" 

More on AIPAC lobbying for the Iraq War:

AIPAC and Iraq, by Matt Iglesias, The Atlantic

Moran Down, The New Republic