Interview with John J. Mearsheimer

Great interview with John J. Mearsheimer on the influence of the Israel Lobby can be found here:

Electric Politics.

It is a nice relaxed interview that gives Prof. Mearsheimer time to develop his arguments completely. One very interesting thing is his brooklyn accent, which makes him sound very Jewish (to me).

The other is that he is actually a fairly strong supporter of Israel - probably too strong for my taste.

I strongly suggest you listen to the whole thing, which is also available as a podcast.

State of the Nation

Well, Israel has starting the grand experiment of starving a group of people into submission, or better yet, driving them off the land into another country.

Juan Cole summarizes:

The humanitarian impact of Israel's electricity blockade of the Gaza Strip. Raw sewage in the streets, which will soon seep into houses; asthmatics choking; hospitals on the verge of switching off life support.

Link

This is a war crime. The American press is all but ignoring this amazing story. Will Americans be surprised when some Islamic "extremest" group attacks them "for our freedom?"

Next, the largely Jewish and very pro-Israel group "Freedom's Watch" is trying to raising $250 million to help pro-war Republican candidates.

The group aims to raise and spend approximately $250 million for the 2008 cycle, a vast amount of money they apparently plan to use not only on the presidential election, but to greater effect in numerous House and Senate races throughout the country, where six figures can go a long way.

Also, Sibel Edmonds fleshes out here claims of corruption and espionage with Turkey and Israel using many well known neocon connections, and the FBI claims certain files "do not exist."

The Sunday Times has obtained a document that confirms that a file, which the FBI denied existed, could contain information about American officials stealing nuclear secrets for Turkish and Israeli spies, who would then sell the secrets to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

TimesOnline

RawStory

Edmonds had previously made statements that "Moles" within the US government were transferring nuclear secrets to Pakistan, among other nations.

Finally, Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger of Israel thanked Bush for "waging a war against Iraq," which Bush said "warmed his heart."

"I want to thank you for your support of Israel and in particular for waging a war against Iraq," Metzger told Bush, according to the chief rabbi's spokesman.

JPost

The words of one Rabbi warms Bush's heart, but the deaths of thousands of Americans leaves him cold.