As Middle East becomes more unstable, so does the mental state of the Israel Lobby

It’s not fun being a lobbyist for Israel these days.
Palestine is due to become a non-voting state observer at the United Nations,
opening the door for full membership in the international organization’s
specialized agencies; Israeli “moderate” Defense Minister Ehud Barak is retiring
from politics; the governing Likud Party of Israel has purged itself of
“moderates” — if such animals exist in that party — and joined up with the
racist illegal settlers’ party Yisrael Beiteinu; and the much-despised by Israel
Barack Obama was re-elected President of the United States.

Add to that the fact that Israel is losing some of its
most loyal American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) stalwarts in
Congress — Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman; California Representative Howard
Berman; and Massachusetts’ gayest supporter of of Israel, Barney Frank — with
Florida Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen being term-limited from her
chairmanship of the House Foreign Affairs Committee — and one could understand
an Israel lobbyist wandering around drunk on the streets of Washington. Even
CNN’s Israel mouthpiece Wolf Blitzer may be facing the ax soon as new CNN News
management plans drastic changes to pull the foundering news network out of its
third-place ratings tail-spin.

In the days prior to the UN General Assembly’s vote on
admitting Palestine as a recognized state observer, “The Lobby” has been working
overtime in the capitals of Europe, North America, and Oceania to prevent “yes”
votes by Israel’s traditional allies. The Lobby has been so aggressive, crucial
splits have emerged within governments and opposition parties.

No more pronounced have these splits been than in
Australia. Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who is unabashedly pro-Israel, planned,
along with her right-wing allies from Victoria, to cast Australia’s vote against
full observer status for Palestine. After Australia announced it would abstain
at the UN on the Palestine vote, Gillard apologized to Israel and Australian
Jews for not joining with Israel, the United States, and Canada in voting “no.”

The left-wing faction of Gillard’s governing Labor Party
pushed for Australia to vote “yes,” with former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans,
former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, and the man Gillard ousted as Prime Minister,
Kevin Rudd, among those pushing for a “yes” on Palestine, while Foreign Minister
Bob Carr and other ministers from the Labor Right of New South Wales, including
Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities Minister Tony
Burke and Immigration and Citizenship Minister Chris Bowen, pushed for an
abstention. Labor’s political fortunes have fallen in Sydney and suburbs as a
result of non-Jewish Middle Eastern voters turning up the heat on politicians
who walk in lockstep with Israel. Carr has normally backed Israel — he
co-founded “Labor Friends of Israel” — but politicians everywhere are
discovering that although support for Israel brings the shekels and dollars into
campaign coffers, there is a price to be paid for being seen as marching with
the wrong historical parade.

Gillard is being pummeled by the Israeli embassy in
Canberra and Jewish organizations for abstaining on the Palestine vote. It has
also become apparent that pressure was being mounted on the government from
another embassy in Canberra: the American embassy where U.S. ambassador Jeffrey
Bleich, the Jewish former national campaign finance committee co-chair for the
Obama campaign, continues to tout the line from the organizations he has long
supported: the American Jewish Committee and Abe Foxman’s Anti-Defamation
League. In commenting on the decision by Australia, Bleich said it would not
affect Australia’s relationship with the United States.

Gillard’s unwavering support for Israel almost cost her
the leadership of her party and the prime ministership. If a Prime Minister is
more willing to give up the leadership of her own country to protect the
interests of another, what does that say about Ms. Gillard’s true loyalties?
Gillard could only convince two of her Victorian right-wing ministers to support
her stance on Palestine, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and Employment,
Workplace Relations, Financial Services, and Superannuation Minister Bill
Shorten. The remainder of Gillard’s Cabinet was in full revolt over her support
for Israel. Gillard’s position was in full agreement with that of the
conservative Liberal-National opposition coalition, with its leader Tony Abbott
agreeing that Australia should reject the Palestine UN application.

Gillard’s colleague in New Zealand, Prime Minister John
Key, himself of Jewish descent, was not indicating which way New Zealand would
ultimately vote on the Palestine issue. Key merely stated New Zealand would not
being voting “no.” An Australian-style abstention was more likely, considering
the fact that the Lobby was working the political halls in Wellington as much as
it was in Canberra, but without the political fireworks as seen across the
Tasman Sea.

The Lobby likely wished it had the same situation “down
under” as it enjoyed in Ottawa. Canada’s fanatical pro-Israel Foreign Minister
John Baird announced that he would travel to New York to personally cast
Canada’s “no” vote on the Palestine resolution. Meanwhile, Prime Minister
Stephen Harper threatened that if Palestine did not drop its observer status
bid, Canada would cut off $300 million in promised aid to the Palestine
Authority, kick out Palestine’s diplomats from Ottawa, and order Palestine’s
mission in Ottawa closed. At a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
in September in New York, Harper was reported to have made the threats
personally to the Palestinian leader and in a very undiplomatic and harsh
manner.
There was also a split in Britain on the vote on
Palestine. Foreign Secretary William Hague indicated that Britain would abstain
if Palestine would not give assurances that it would not take its case against
Israel to the International Criminal Court and the World Court. Liberal
Democratic leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and many of his Liberal
Democratic ministers and MPs in the coalition government with the Conservatives
supported a “yes” vote on Palestine. However, Prime Minister David Cameron,
Hague, and other Tories favored an abstention without Palestinian guarantees for
Israel. The mere fact that a British Prime Minister was asking Palestine for
“guarantees” for Israel is a major indicator of the changes in the Middle East.
Once, Israel was asked by the West for “guarantees” for Palestine, every one of
which has been broken by the Israeli government.
The governments of Denmark, Switzerland, Spain,
Portugal, and France all announced their support for the Palestinian resolution,
standard efforts by “The Lobby” in Copenhagen, Berne, Madrid, Lisbon, and Paris
having failed to sway the governments of those nations. Israeli government
envoys and lobbyists were still active in Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Poland,
Romania, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and the Netherlands trying to ensure a “no”
vote by their UN delegations.
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Meanwhile, across the Jordan River, Wahhabist and
Salafist tempo was being increased on the government of Jordan. With Syria’s
government on the ropes, the Saudi-backed Salafists see a chance to settle
scores with an old enemy – the Hashemite King of Jordan, Abdullah II. The Sauds
were originally granted control over Hashemite lands of the Hejaz, including
Mecca and Medina, by the British after World War I. The British re-located
Hashemite control to Iraq and Transjordan.

Jordanian security is stepping up its surveillance of
agents in the employment of both Saudi Arabia and Israel, with many European
foreigners being accused of being Mossad agents. After recent services at the
Grand Mosque in Amman, Jordanian security police moved in on several protesters.
Although the protests against the Jordanian government are mainly over rising
fuel prices, there is a tinge of the same “Arab street” sentiment that preceded
the revolutions in Libya and Syria. Some in Jordan, especially those with
Salafist leanings, have opnely called for the overthrow of the monarchy and its
replacement with an Islamist regime. There are reports that Jordanian police
have gunned down protesters in the streets with the “injured” later reported as
having died in the hospital a few weeks later.
Jordanian intelligence is also arresting hundreds of
protest leaders and, through torture, are obtaining their foreign contacts. The
contacts, according to reports reaching WMR, include top rebel Islamist leaders
now acrtive in Syria and formerly active in Libya and Afghanistan. The local CIA
agents in Amman are reportedly present at the torture sessions. Jordanian
security is also culling those now in refugee camps along the Jordanian border
with Syria looking for potential sympathizers for the Jordanian insurgency. The
camps are ringed with barbed wire and heavily guarded but some guards are
freeing some refugees for $800 in cash, with certain international “aid”
agencies being in on the smuggling operation.
Photographic evidence of the wholesale slaughter of
Syrian army troops by the rebels inside Syria are also making their way out of
Syria and into Jordan. Pictures and video clips show several rows of Syrian
soldiers, bound by the hands and feet, and shot by rebels. From Sunni mosques in
Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen go out calls from imams
for able-bodied men to go to Syria and fight with the Al Qaeda and Al Shabab
brigades already present in the country. WMR has also learned that Syrian Kurds,
Christians, Druze, and Alawites have formed self-defense units around Syria to
fight against “Free Syrian Army” and Islamist rebel groups. The groups are
resisting edicts proclaiming the adoption of full shariah law in
rebel-controlled territory. Iranian parliament chairman Ali Larijani has,
according to our reports, promised help to the Syrian government and
self-defense units and has urged the government of Lebanon and its supporters,
including Hezbollah, to render support to the Kurds, Christians, Druze, and
Alawites in Syria.

waynemadsenreport.com