AIPAC lobbies US to strike SYRIA
In the past few weeks, the Israeli Government has kept a low profile on the Syrian issue. In some news, it has been said that it is not in Israel's interest for the US to attack Syria because the terrorists may get access to Syrian chemical weapons.
Now that President Obama is having a hard time getting congressional approval of a Syria strike, AIPAC is showing the real interests of Israel by lobbying US politicians to support the strike. So what happened to all that talk that striking Syria was not their concern? Apparently it was only to fool everyone, as long as the US did everything, the Israel Government could lie low and let the US take all the blame. Now that the US public and its representatives are resisting the rather weak justification for a strike, Israel, as represented by AIPAC wants to more forcefully tip the US into war.
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AIPAC to go all-out on Syria
By MANU RAJU | 9/5/13 5:46 PM EDT
The powerful pro-Israel lobby AIPAC is planning to launch a major lobbying campaign to push wayward lawmakers to back the resolution authorizing U.S. strikes against Syria, sources said Thursday.
Officials say that some 250 Jewish leaders and AIPAC activists will storm the halls on Capitol Hill beginning next week to persuade lawmakers that Congress must adopt the resolution or risk emboldening Iran’s efforts to build a nuclear weapon. They are expected to lobby virtually every member of Congress, arguing that barbarism by the Assad regime cannot be tolerated, and that failing to act would send a message to Tehran that the U.S. won’t stand up to hostile countries’ efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction, according to a source with the group.
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History tells us that ambiguity [in U.S. actions] invites aggression, said the AIPAC source who asked not to be named. The source added the group will now be engaged in a major mobilization over the issue.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/aipac-syria-96344.html#ixzz2eCX1Du...
A big thanks!
My big congrats for US citizens who seem to have influenced their representatives against supporting a US strike. As of today, news reports say that a congressional vote would result in a loss for Obama's (more like Saudi, Quatar, and Israel's) war on Syria.
In the lower house it is 42 for a strike vs 152 against with 208 undecided.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/09/05/us/politics/syria-vote-tra...
Hopefully US citizens can make their voices heard over the big money tactics of AIPAC.
Israel on record wanting Assad removed
Israel wants to see Assad removed
Dan Williams, Reuters
JERUSALEM - The Israeli ambassador to the United States says Israel has wanted to see Syrian President Bashar al-Assad removed from power since before the outbreak of war there - a shift from its publicly-stated position.
It sees his defeat by rebels who include al Qaeda-linked Islamists as preferable to his current alliance with Iran, ambassador Michael Oren said.
His comments in an interview with the Jerusalem Post marked a move in Israel's public position on the civil war in Syria. Though old enemies, a stable stand-off has endured between the two countries during Assad's rule.
Unlike Israeli President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stopped short of publicly urging Assad's overthrow and Israeli officials have long warned of the danger that al Qaeda-aligned rebel forces could turn their guns on Israel if the Syrian leader fell.
But, Oren said: "The initial message about the Syrian issue was that we always wanted Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who weren't backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran." Oren said.
This was Israel's position well before the outbreak of war in Syria and had continued to be so, he said.
Assad's overthrow would also weaken the alliance between Israel's arc foe Iran and Tehran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, Oren said.
"The greatest danger to Israel is by the strategic arc that extends from Tehran, to Damascus to Beirut. And we saw the Assad regime as the keystone in that arc.
Oren described al Qaeda-aligned rebels as "pretty bad guys" but said that others were less radical.
Israel believes around one in 10 Syrian rebels are Sunni militants sworn to its destruction. Assad's Alawite sect is closer to the rival Shi'ite Islam of Iran and Hezbollah.
In the interview, excerpted ahead of its publication in full on Friday, Oren - a Netanyahu confidant - did not say if or how Israel was promoting Assad's fall.
Netanyahu casts Iran's disputed nuclear drive as the main threat to Israel and world stability.
The Jewish state, which is widely assumed to have the region's sole atomic arsenal, has played down any direct Syrian threat to it but is concerned that a weak Western policy towards Assad could encourage Iran.
http://www.torontosun.com/2013/09/17/israel-wants-to-see-assad-removed