Rep. Jim Moran chastised for anti-semitic remarks

[Verily]

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.

[Verily]

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.)