How would you feel to know that a pro-Iran organization – Iran being the country that is currently prorgressing towards the capability of creating nuclear weapons it can then use to make good on its stated commitment to “wipe Israel off the map” – is a) a regular attendee at White House sessions and b) just addressed a conference of Israel hating individuals and groups?
Personally, as an American, as someone who recognizes the value of Israel as an ally, and as a Jew, I can\’t say I\’m happy about it.
Here are some of the particulars, via excerpts from Alana Goodman\’s article at freebeacon.com. See if you feel the same:
One of the White House\’s key partner groups for promoting an Iranian nuclear deal addressed a conspiracist-laden conference aimed at combating “the power of the Israel Lobby” in Washington, D.C., on Friday.
Reza Marashi, the research director for the National Iranian American Council, which has been meeting regularly with White House officials to help sell the Iran deal, called on the audience to help “create the space for the White House” to pursue diplomacy with Iran.
Marashi’s remarks on Iran capped off a day of speeches from authors and former public officials who warned about the influence of the “Jewish lobby” and its “agents [who] exist by the hundreds and hundreds” across the United States.
“Politico reported last week that the White House has been working with NIAC, a U.S. group that advocates for policies that benefit the Iranian regime, as part of “a ramped-up series of briefings to allies who can make the case from the outside.”
Paul Findley, a former Republican congressman who left office in 1983, spoke of “the suffocating influence of the lobby for Israel across America.”
“These agents exist by the hundreds and hundreds throughout the country,” he said. “You can be sure that someone in every village, every city, every hamlet is there to protect the interests of the state of Israel. And it\’s a very scary scene, one that is not receiving any attention.”
“Israel was corrupt from the beginning. Israel was created as the result of a brutal ethnic cleansing and established itself as an apartheid regime immediately when it was formed,” said author Miko Peled during a panel on the pro-Israel lobby\’s impact in the Middle East.
“There was no better Israel, there was no uncorrupt Israel. There cannot be an uncorrupt Israel because it was built on a crime and it has no legitimacy,” he added, to widespread applause.
Author Gareth Porter, who spoke on the panel with Marashi, said intelligence information obtained by the International Atomic Energy Agency was “fabricated by the Mossad international intelligence service of Israel.” On the same panel, writer Paul Pillar argued, “The overall level of democracy in Israel and Iran these days can be both considered about the same.”
Other speakers included radio host Jeffrey Blankfort-who complained at a similar summit last year that “when it comes to the Holocaust, there\’s no range of opinions”-and former United Nations official Richard Falk, who was criticized in 2011 for posting an anti-Semitic cartoon on his website and once suggested that the Boston marathon bombing was related to U.S. support for Israel.
This is who the Obama White House is working with on a deal with Iran? This is who would be advocating a deal that would render Iran incapable of firing nuclear weapons at Israel? Yeah, and I rode in on my unicorn this morning because my dragon had a throat problem and couldn\’t fire up its engine.
There are people – good people – who differ in their belief about what Barack Obama\’s regard for Israel. May those who think Mr. Obama is a sincere friend of Israel incorporate the fact that he and his people regularly meet with the National Iranian American Council into their opinion, and see if it moves them in any direction.
