Rep. Jim Moran chastised for anti-semitic remarks

[Conan]

Moran said the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) “has pushed this war [in Iraq] from the beginning … They are so well organized, and their members are extraordinarily powerful — most of them are quite wealthy — they have been able to exert power.”


So AIPAC immediately translates into all jews. I'd stand by his words.

[Conan]

What was inaccurate or "anti-Semitic" about those remarks? AIPAC is a very powerful lobby that pushed for the war, is it not?

AIPAC didn't push us into war. AIPAC is not a shadowy organization that secretly manipulates American foreign policy. AIPAC is just another lobbying group --it's no stronger or savvier than the NRA or PhRMA. Those who accuse AIPAC of yield an unwieldy share of power are echoing the arguments of those who used Jewish bankers as scapegoats for their nations economics woes.
Jews have always been a persecuted minority, even when they weren't the direct target --- back in 1096, the rapacious Crusaders took a break from their rapine rampage to massacre 8,000 Jews in the Rhineland.  The Jewish people do not deserve to be attacked with rhetoric that incited pogroms and genocides. I hope Congressman Moran shows the streghnth of character to apologize for his comments, these remarks aren't impolitic, they are incendiary and callous.

The Democrat must not tolerate those are go beyond the bounds of a measured political dialogue and launch into unfounded accusations. For the Moran family's sake, I hope Jim Moran's hateful remarks do not harm the likely gubernatorial his brother, Jim.

Totally irrelevent and your views on AIPAC are misguided. AIPAC is one of the strongest lobbying groups supporting the Isreali state. You don't find pres candidates pandering to AIPAC for no reason. AIPAC has huge influence over the US foreign policy.

Moran should not apologize and should instead call for Hoyer to apologize to him. Hoyer, as we all know, is owned by lobbyists of every sort.

[Conan]

What was inaccurate or "anti-Semitic" about those remarks? AIPAC is a very powerful lobby that pushed for the war, is it not?

AIPAC didn't push us into war. AIPAC is not a shadowy organization that secretly manipulates American foreign policy. AIPAC is just another lobbying group --it's no stronger or savvier than the NRA or PhRMA. Those who accuse AIPAC of yield an unwieldy share of power are echoing the arguments of those who used Jewish bankers as scapegoats for their nations economics woes.
Jews have always been a persecuted minority, even when they weren't the direct target --- back in 1096, the rapacious Crusaders took a break from their rapine rampage to massacre 8,000 Jews in the Rhineland.  The Jewish people do not deserve to be attacked with rhetoric that incited pogroms and genocides. I hope Congressman Moran shows the streghnth of character to apologize for his comments, these remarks aren't impolitic, they are incendiary and callous.

The Democrat must not tolerate those are go beyond the bounds of a measured political dialogue and launch into unfounded accusations. For the Moran family's sake, I hope Jim Moran's hateful remarks do not harm the likely gubernatorial his brother, Jim.

Totally irrelevent and your views on AIPAC are misguided. AIPAC is one of the strongest lobbying groups supporting the Isreali state. You don't find pres candidates pandering to AIPAC for no reason. AIPAC has huge influence over the US foreign policy.

Moran should not apologize and should instead call for Hoyer to apologize to him. Hoyer, as we all know, is owned by lobbyists of every sort.

What's wrong will AIPAC being so powerful? So are the Aremianian interests, and no one ever complains about their power.   Since Truman vacillated and then decided in favor of Israel, the U.S and Israel have a relationship of unconditional love. This bond has led Israel to become a top buyer of America defense contractors and has helped reaffirmed America's moral ascendancy in the West by showing that the U.S is backing up its pro-democracy rhetoric with support of a democratic state.

If you're angry about supposed Israeli human rights violations, I hope you'll read through Alan Dershowitz's "The Case for Israel." Israel is not immune from criticism, when leaders like Bibi Netanyahu make anti-Palestinian remarks, they deserve to be repudiated, but an irrational hatred of Israel is wrong. That's the kind of hate that emanates from Rep. Moran's comments.

1st Bold is irrelevent and not true again. The US hasnt even recognized their genocide.
2nd Bold is also irrelevent. His comments were that AIPAC has a lot of power. It's not an attack against Israel. And it is completely ridiculous and extremely ignorant to suggest that his comments were hateful because there was no hate in them whatsoever and it wasn't directed at Israel.. it was directed at AIPAC and his statement happens to be true.

[Conan]

This whole issue is ridiculous. He was talking about the leadership within the Jewish community, which he repeatedly clarified. And let's face it, a lot of Jewish Lobbyists did sway things in favor of the war. Hell, look at most of the last names of the people in charge of the neo-Con movement.

The neo-conservative movement was founded by Jewish intellectuals who were worried about the Democratic Party's leftward drift on foreign policy issues. But the most powerful proponents of the war in Iraq were two non-Jews, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld. At the time, even paleocons like George Will were backing the war. To say that "Jewish Lobbyists" were playing a key role in the decision to go to war in Iraq is inconsistent with the reality of the pre-war push. Dick Cheney and David Addington played just as great, if not a greater role than Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Perle.

Well, sure, to say "Iraq is all the Jews' fault" would be clearly wrong and anti-Semitic. Still, it is very troublesome how much influence AIPAC has, and how powerful the Israel lobby is in Washington; on that Moran is right.

Why is it "troublesome"? How is this any worse than the NRA or the NEA having infulence over gun and education policy, respectively?

Did I say those were less troublesome? (Though, IMO, the NRA and NEA have considerably less influence than AIPAC simply because AIPAC has supporters in both parties but the NRA is mostly concentrated in the Republicans and the NEA in the Democrats.)

No, but my point is that you didn't bemoan their influence, but you did single out AIPAC. You still haven't explained why perceive AIPAC to be "troublesome"?

Maybe he didn't bring up the NEA and NRA because this discussion is about AIPAC. One is about education and rights of which all Americans are effected. The other is about pro-israeli foreign policy. How many Americans happen to also be Israeli or jewish? Do you now get the point or are you going to repeat false notions that this was hate speech and continue to be ignorant about how powerful AIPAC is?

[Conan]

What was inaccurate or "anti-Semitic" about those remarks? AIPAC is a very powerful lobby that pushed for the war, is it not?

AIPAC didn't push us into war. AIPAC is not a shadowy organization that secretly manipulates American foreign policy. AIPAC is just another lobbying group --it's no stronger or savvier than the NRA or PhRMA. Those who accuse AIPAC of yield an unwieldy share of power are echoing the arguments of those who used Jewish bankers as scapegoats for their nations economics woes.
Jews have always been a persecuted minority, even when they weren't the direct target --- back in 1096, the rapacious Crusaders took a break from their rapine rampage to massacre 8,000 Jews in the Rhineland.  The Jewish people do not deserve to be attacked with rhetoric that incited pogroms and genocides. I hope Congressman Moran shows the streghnth of character to apologize for his comments, these remarks aren't impolitic, they are incendiary and callous.

The Democrat must not tolerate those are go beyond the bounds of a measured political dialogue and launch into unfounded accusations. For the Moran family's sake, I hope Jim Moran's hateful remarks do not harm the likely gubernatorial his brother, Jim.

Totally irrelevent and your views on AIPAC are misguided. AIPAC is one of the strongest lobbying groups supporting the Isreali state. You don't find pres candidates pandering to AIPAC for no reason. AIPAC has huge influence over the US foreign policy.

Moran should not apologize and should instead call for Hoyer to apologize to him. Hoyer, as we all know, is owned by lobbyists of every sort.

What's wrong will AIPAC being so powerful? So are the Aremianian interests, and no one ever complains about their power.   Since Truman vacillated and then decided in favor of Israel, the U.S and Israel have a relationship of unconditional love. This bond has led Israel to become a top buyer of America defense contractors and has helped reaffirmed America's moral ascendancy in the West by showing that the U.S is backing up its pro-democracy rhetoric with support of a democratic state.

If you're angry about supposed Israeli human rights violations, I hope you'll read through Alan Dershowitz's "The Case for Israel." Israel is not immune from criticism, when leaders like Bibi Netanyahu make anti-Palestinian remarks, they deserve to be repudiated, but an irrational hatred of Israel is wrong. That's the kind of hate that emanates from Rep. Moran's comments.

1st Bold is irrelevent and not true again. The US hasnt even recognized their genocide.
2nd Bold is also irrelevent. His comments were that AIPAC has a lot of power. It's not an attack against Israel. And it is completely ridiculous and extremely ignorant to suggest that his comments were hateful because there was no hate in them whatsoever and it wasn't directed at Israel.. it was directed at AIPAC and his statement happens to be true.

Conan, nice, but no dice.  If you did some research, you'd find out that the Armenian lobby is, in fact, a strong proponent for its cause.. Former Majority Leader Bob Dole is one exmaple of a prominent pro-Armenian voice who guided American policy in direction that benefited Armenian interest. Just look at Section 907 of the Foreign Service Act, which prohibited funds for Azerbjaiain, which is an enemy of Armenia. Ironically, AIPAC recently argued in favor of  Azerbaijan to Congress, but they lost the dispute to Armenia and the powerful lobbyists of the Armenian National Committee of America.

The Armenian point is not "irrelevant," it's actually quite pertinent to this discussion. My point is that Mr. Moran is anti-Semitic because he's making comments that echo anti-Jewish comments from the past while ignoring the reality of why we went into Iraq, which has little to do with AIPAC.  The criticism stings because it boils down to this: AIPAC is a bellicose organization that condone Israeli war crimes and exerts undue influence in Washington D.C  Similar words could describe the Armenian National Committee of America, but rarely does one see attacks on them. Yes, I'm aware that Armenia is a tiny nation with one zillionth the geopolitical importance of Israel, but the contrast between the rancor of the anti-AIPAC forces and the silence of the anti-Armenian National Committee of America is notable.

Some people are rightly offended by remarks that use such as "wealthy" and "powerful" to  describe Jewish interests because similar words were used by anti-Semites of the past who perpetuated horrific crimes against Jews around the world.  If Rep. Moran's criticisms weren't made with malicious intentions, then he should at least apologize for the way his insensitivity to a community that's still haunted by  the worst genocide of the 20th century.

While there is absolutely no argument that the Armenian lobby is anywhere near as strong as the Israeli lobby, Moran said nothing detrimental to jews and it is completely irresponsible to say so in this current case. If you would reread his statement, you'd find out that he says AIPAC doesn't represent the views of most jewish people. This is important because just because someone is jewish doesnt mean they are staunchly pro-Israeli. Fact is, AIPAC is funded by mostly wealthy pro-Israeli people who happen to probably be jewish and AIPAC is the most effective and powerful foreign policy lobbying group in Washington. There's a reason presidential candidates went to there forum and pandered to them. It's not like there is an Armenian presidential forum or one presidential candidate has even mentioned Armenia.