Israel Lobby

The Daily ShowGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook Jon Stewart and Samantha Bee of The Daily Show send up “Zionist billionaire” Sheldon Adelson’s recent attempt to buy Republican presidential candidates and his imposition on them of euphemisms about the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

Featured

The Shame of American Politics: GOP Presidential Hopefuls now Trek to Las Vegas seeking Adelson Blessing

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) A series of pro-corporation Supreme Court decisions and the latter’s disingenuous equation of money with speech, including “Citizens United”, have turned the United States from a democracy to a plutocracy. It is not even a transparent plutocracy, since black money (of unknown provenance) has been allowed by SCOTUS to flood into elections. […]

Israel

US Special Interest Groups in the Middle East Peace Process

Juan Cole

(by Mahmoud M.A. Abdou) In this post, Mahmoud Abdou presents a summary of his book The Middle East Peace Process and U.S. Special Interest Groups. The Middle East Peace Process and U.S. Special Interest Groups is meant as a contribution towards resolving the puzzle regarding the actual clout of pro-Israel U.S. special interest groups by […]

Barack Obama

McCain’s Mind-Boggling Hypocrisy on Crimea at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Conference

Juan Cole

John Hickman, author of Selling Guantanamo, writes in a guest column for Informed Comment That the Crimean Crisis would be exploited by Republican Congressional leaders to criticize President Obama was inevitable. Politics hasn’t stopped at the water’s edge in the United States for a very long time. What wasn’t inevitable was the shamelessness of Senator […]

Egypt

What today’s GOP gets Wrong about Leadership: Obama & Eisenhower, Russian & Israeli Recklessness

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) The usual suspects have been slamming President Obama for an alleged lack of leadership. Trolls for the military-industrial complex like Charles Krauthammer, and megalomaniacs from tiny states like Sen. Lindsey Graham have constructed a narrative in which Obama willfully withdrew from Iraq, giving it away to Iran; has been insufficiently slavish in […]

Dissent

Israel’s Curb on Freedom of Speech in Anti-Boycott Law Challenged in Court

contributors

(By Bill Van Esveld) On [last] Sunday, nine Israeli Supreme Court justices heard a petition to revoke the country’s “anti-boycott law” – a law that penalizes people or groups that advocate boycotting Israeli products, institutions or individuals – because it restricts the right to freedom of expression. The anti-boycott law’s critics are as diverse as […]

Iran

A $9 Trillion War? Top 10 Reasons Americans will Regret it if GOP Derails Iran Negotiations

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) 40 Republican senators are making a last-minute push to bring further Iran sanctions up for a vote despite the opposition of senate majority leader Harry Reid. Some 59 senators signed on to a plan to increase sanctions during President Obama’s negotiations with Iran, which Iranian leaders have argued could derail the talks. […]

Israel

Israeli Pols attack Sec. Kerry over Boycott Remarks: “Can’t negotiate with a gun to our Heads”

Juan Cole

(Via AFP) Israel, US locked in spat over Kerry boycott remark (via AFP) Israel and Washington were at loggerheads on Sunday after senior Israeli figures attacked US Secretary of State John Kerry for warning of a growing boycott threat if peace talks fail. The latest spat erupted a day after Kerry warned of the potential… […]

Iran

American Public Pushes back against AIPAC Senators seeking Iran Conflict

contributors

(By Sarah Lazare) A congressional drive for new sanctions on Iran, backed by the lobbying muscle of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, is meeting growing push-back from a public that does not want another war. "We have an opportunity to stand up and say we're not going to support legislation that will only move […]