AIPAC, Israel, and the United States, oh my

By Mary MacElveen - Oct 4, 2004

As it pertains to the use of nuclear weapons or our concern whether or not a country does have them or our belief that a country is trying to build one, I often wonder if we even have the moral standing when it pertains to this weaponry. We are the only country that has used this weapon of Armageddon in war time.

In days of each other we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and the second one took out the city of Nagasaki. Yet, we think we have the right to tell another country; do not build one? What gives us the right to admonish other countries if we believe they are building one? If we are truly arbiters of peace; how can we turn a blind-eye when one of our allies in the Middle East does have them? That ally is Israel and I will address that in a bit.

I came across a wonderful article titled, Science Hero: Albert Einstein written by Richard V. Duffy. Within this piece, Mr. Duffy writes, “Einstein surrendered his lifelong pacifism in 1939, when he wrote a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt encouraging the President to begin atomic weapon research. He felt uneasy about the rise in power of Nazi Germany and was told that German physicists had split the uranium atom.” History will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt his words were paid attention to.

In March of 1945 as you will read, he sent a second letter to President Roosevelt warning him of the cataclysmic results should such a bomb actually be used. In April of 1945, President Roosevelt died and that second letter went unopened.

In totality by dropping these bombs, 200,000 Japanese were killed. As written by Duffy, upon learning that these bombs were used by the United States, Einstein said, “I could burn my fingers that I wrote that first letter to President Roosevelt,” Duffy goes onto quote Einstein, “I made one mistake in my life when I signed that letter to President Roosevelt advocating that the atomic bomb should be built. But perhaps I can be forgiven because we all felt that there was a high probability that the Germans were working on this problem and would use the atomic bomb to become the master race.” The thing is we did not use it on Germany but Japan. In any event, what is done is done; our lesson is to learn from it.

I often wonder what Einstein would opine if alive concerning Israel’s nuclear stockpile. Would he admonish them as we are admonishing other nations such as Iran and North Korea?

Many do feel we will launch a preemptive strike on Iran which may bring about the use of a nuclear weapon and this is what Einstein had to say of any possible third world war, “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” Given the fact that the United States and Israel are the only known countries who may launch such an attack, it is we who own these weapons of Armageddon. Are we fulfilling Einstein’s prophesy should we use such a weapon or weapons with the possible assist of Israel?

In my daily news alerts, this article blazed out at me, Clinton backs bill on Congress OK for Iran war. The Democratic presidential front-runner, Sen. Hillary Clinton had this to say, "Any military action against Iran will have an immediate impact on our troops serving in Iraq, our allies in the region as well as long-term U.S. strategic interests,"

But, it is this one that is the most frightening and calls into question our sovereignty, “AIPAC advocates are keeping all options on the table as a means of pressuring Iran to end its suspected nuclear weapons program.” For those of you who do not know what AIPAC stands for, it is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee which is a powerful lobbying group. I do not know about you, but I do not like any outside interest dictating to us what measures to take when it pertains to war fare.

I am going to get two things off my chest right off the bat. First of all, that statement in which AIPAC wishes to keep all options on the table, notice the operative word, “suspected”? Where is the verifiable proof? Secondly, exactly whose interests does Senator Clinton have in mind as she rushes towards the White House? I fully believe that she is being unduly influenced by AIPAC and as far as I am concerned, their interests should not be our interests.

In reading this article In Aipac Talk, Clinton Offers Up Red Meat Before Calling for Engagement With Iran where she addressed 1,700 members this quote coming from Clinton jumped out at me,“At 5:00 we got a call — not from my Senate leadership or my colleagues — but from Aipac, saying that the vote would be at 5:30,” Clinton recounted, chuckling. “Your intelligence sources are certainly beyond anything we have in Washington.”

This article goes onto report, “to Aipac’s recent legal troubles, involving two former staffers accused of passing classified information to the Israelis. And they cheered as Clinton wasted little time emphatically making a hard-line case for tough action to block Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons”

Just yesterday, CNN reported where Clinton passed the 50 percent mark in which Democrats are backing her candidacy and looking at this article and her support for Israel above all others within the region, it causes me great concern. To even deal with a lobby group in which two former staffers were accused of passing classified information onto Israel should be a concern for every single Democratic voter and more importantly the American people.

In speaking of verifiable proof as it pertains to nuclear weaponry, I am urging all to watch this feed,Dimona - Israeli Nuclear reactor. According to this feed, no plane is allowed to fly within its air space. We demand compliance from Iran and North Korea; why not Israel or even us for that matter? According to this feed, Israel is ranked as the fifth nuclear power. To help stabilize this region; why is there no call for Israel to dismantle this verifiable nuclear plant?

AIPAC does have power and you will be shocked in reading this article, The Lobby on Trial. Please pay close attention to this passage from it, “More than three years ago, the news that Rosen, the number-one lobbyist for Israel in Washington, and his sidekick Weissman had been indicted for violating the Espionage Act, for handing over top-secret intelligence to Israeli embassy officials, broke like a thunderclap over official Washington. Today, its echoes have petered out almost entirely,”

In reading this frightening article originally reported by Time magazine, “Larry Franklin, an analyst for the Defense Department in Washington” as one reads, “began cooperating with the FBI after agents first confronted him with evidence that he had given classified material to AIPAC, one of Washington's most powerful lobbying organizations. Israel and AIPAC have denied the spy allegations; neither the Pentagon nor Franklin would comment.”

As you will read, Condoleezza Rice then the NSA director and her deputy, Steven Hadley became aware of this FBI probe into AIPAC, Pres. Bush while attending an AIPAC conference, “thanked the organization for "serving the cause of America" and bringing to public attention the threat of Iran's development of nuclear weapons.” But, you will never hear from AIPAC of Israel’s nuclear program.

What precipitated our invasion into Iraq was that they had weapons of mass destruction. Of course that turned out to be false. We are now told that Iran is headed towards building a nuclear weapon in order to fear this nation into another preemptive war, but what astonishes me is that we are doing absolutely nothing when it comes to Israel’s capabilities.

In further addressing Israel’s nuclear capabilities, it will frighten you to read, “Israel has for years successfully skirted international nuclear safeguards and has come to develop a robust nuclear capability and the weapon systemsnecessary to hold at risk most of the countries in the Middle East. The Negev Nuclear Research Center, located about 10 kilometers southeast of Dimona, is at the heart of the Israeli nuclear program.”

There is pure lunacy on Israel’s part, when one reads, “Israel is by now the only nuclear weapons state that does not acknowledge the fact that it possesses nuclear weapons.” Yet we allow for them this deniability. No one in Washington is holding their feet to the fire as we have done with Iran and North Korea.

A while back Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert got into a bit of trouble with the slip of the tongue that Israel did in fact have nuclear weapons. I found this passage very note worthy, “Since 1969, the United States has accepted Israel's status as a nuclear power and not pressed it to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which subjects its adherents to inspections and sanctions aimed at stopping the spread of weapons.” Why is Israel being treated differently than countries such as Iraq, Iran and even North Korea? Could it be AIPAC’s influence over our government? You be the judge.

When this slip of the tongue by Olmert was first reported, I did write of it in this article, Note to Prime Minister Olmert: We already knew that Israel had a nuclear stockpile. Interestingly enough, when I clicked on the link that formed my editorial, the originating article is gone. Thankfully, the SF Gate’s article is still there for all to read. By the way according the research done for my article, Israel has a nuclear stockpile that contains 400 nuclear warheads according to retired US Army Colonel Warner D. Farr, M.D.; Israel is the fifth largest nuclear superpower in the world. By 1967, Israel already had 15 atomic bombs in its arsenal. In 1976, their nuclear arsenal grew to 15 to 20 nukes, and by 1980 jumped to 200. According to Farr, in 1997, Israel now has over 400 nuclear and hydrogen weapons.”

All of this should be of great concern to every single American. Our national security demands that we hold Israel equally culpable as we do Iran, Iraq and any other nation. But, with powerful lobbying groups such as AIPAC, our national security is in danger. This is the stuff that nightmares are made of.

I will leave you to ponder what Albert Einstein had to say concerning the use of nuclear weapons, “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”