Mr. Goldberg, you wrote what I thought was a most
interesting opinion here
and below in the Forward on the above
referenced subject. As a prolific
letter, opinion writer and blogger on contemporary political and social issues
your article to my own chagrin solidified views about which I had subliminally
been thinking but which had not risen to the forefront nor articulated by me to
spell danger, yet again, to our small Jewish group. I worried that some of my
opinions might have stepped on toes I never would have stepped on before.
Yes, I am an ardent and forever liberal Democrat
cemented in my opinion through decades of political thought beginning in the
late 1960's with Howard Zinn as my political mentor against the murderous
policy of the war in Vietnam and much later (perhaps a bit late) against ultimately
the Iraq War and its contemporary Middle Eastern madness. Most Jews, I dare say, were, as I was,
vociferously, against the war in Vietnam and later even against the Iraq
War. The horrific debacle of Iraq and
our present Middle East quagmire was promulgated by influential men -- the
NeoCons – some of whom just happened to be Jewish – among them Paul Wolfowitz,
Daniel Pearl, Douglas Feith, Scooter
Libby and others who were not Jewish.
Their views to me, like fingernails on a blackboard,
screeched against my moral fiber. Their
alliances with Bush administration power was, in my eye, responsible first for
the Trade Center collapse of 9/11 in that Bush was warned in his PDB but failed
to act, and worse when he did act he was responsible for the worst, most costly
and murderous foreign policy decision in US history – invading a country which
did nothing to us and whose strong-arm leadership of Hussein we needed and even
once supported in his war against Iran.
It gave Iran (supposedly our arch enemy) power and a major influence in
that vital region.
The Iraq War killed, mutilated and dismembered
thousands of American soldiers lured into battles they should not have fought
and into a life of disability they should not have to suffer. It killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis (no
one knows the true number) and displaced millions. Worse it destabilized the Middle East tinder
box we encounter today. We placed,
through our nefarious Neo-Con actions, Al Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant with its
offshoot the murder machine ISIS/ISIL.
It subverted Middle East peace and encouraged Middle East eternal war
madness. My moral compass changed.
NeoCons, made up of many in AIPAC, to my embarrassment,
have brought, as I see it, the US to perpetual war. Along with this gargantuan Iraq failure comes
criticism of the nation's symbiotic relationship with Israel toward which I was
never critical until the trajectory
of Bush's foreign blunder and AIPAC's, it seemed to me, undue influence on
American military policy became a monstrosity.
AIPAC, I perceived, was against my first alliance, America, and for some
in its group their first alliance is to Israel.
I love Israel and always have. I
was supportive of it often without exception but in the end I am not
Israeli. I am an American and my first
allegiance is to the US. If Israeli
influence is oppositional to what I believe American interests should be then I
reject it.
The icing on the cake, for me, a Democrat in extremis, was Israeli Prime Minister
Netanyahu’s speech to Republicans in Congress with pointed opposition to the
vital nuclear Deal with Iran; a deal which so many scientists, politicos,
experts on foreign policy and many Israelis, too, deem a good one and one which
will prevent yet another Middle Eastern quagmire against, this time, a capable
nation, Iran, this nation could not afford.
Rejection of it would further isolate the US from the other P5 allies
which support the Deal and would not back down from it.
Those who are waxing anti-Semitic in this nation and
around the world are very worrisome, of course, to me but it is more worrisome
to me that this nation be taken to a place in which its interests do not lie
and toward which its morality should not go.
