Emergency Committee for Israel Launches Second Attack Ad

The Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI) — the latest astroturf group organized by neoconservative Bill Kristol and Christian evangelical Gary Bauer — has launched their second attack ad, this time going after Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH). We here at LobeLog have closely followed the ECI since its public launch last month.

For those who forget, the ECI — which Kristol describes as the, “proIsrael wing of the proIsrael community” — has derived plenty of negative attention in the blogosphere for its links (first mentioned here) to the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI) and Fox News contributor Margaret Hoover. The ECI appears be a letterhead group designed to narrow the acceptable discourse about the U.S.-Israel relationship and, much like the CLI, push the U.S. into further military adventurism in the Middle East.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the “Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace” J Street organization, issued the following statement responding to the ECI‘s latest attack ad.

The latest attack ad from the Emergency Committee for Israel is a frightening example of how pro-Israel advocacy as practiced by far-right neocons like Bill Kristol and right-wing Christian Zionists like Gary Bauer has come unhinged.

According to their ad, it’s apparently “anti-Israel” for a member of Congress to sign a letter urging that Israel do exactly what the Prime Minister of Israel has now done — namely, ease the terms of the closure of Gaza so that weapons are kept out, while humanitarian and other supplies are allowed in.

What’s next for the Emergency Committee? An attack ad against Prime Minister Netanyahu?

The tactics of the Emergency Committee will win no friends for Israel. By increasing the fear and ill will around Israel in American politics, they are doing far more to undermine Israel’s security than to save it.

Eli Clifton

Eli Clifton reports on money in politics and US foreign policy. He is a co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Eli previously reported for the American Independent News Network, ThinkProgress, and Inter Press Service.

SHOW 4 COMMENTS

4 Comments

  1. J Street says, “Ease the terms of the closure of Gaza so that weapons are kept out.”

    This brings up the real issue, can there ever be peace in the Middle-East so long as Israel has weapons of aggression, namely armed submarines and weapons of mass destruction that reach way beyond it’s neighbors?

  2. As long as the pro, anti, peace, war and too-busy-to-care sectors of society, and primarily their leaders, do not learn the simple, methodical, contradiction resolution process of the human mind, you are stuck with the same thousands-of-years old show.

    But it is highly amusing, especially by the peace and anti-war advocates who could socially manifest their stated espousals within 30 days of learning intellectual technology, defeating opposition, verifiable against their every question.

    Alas, they think like Bush, Obama and all military generals, perceiving that power, not reasoning, is the controlling process of human minds that in fact are predicated on reasoning, with no mechanism for one mind to force another mind.

    The humans were invented for the amusement of the inventor, with a mind capable of resolving all contradictions, but including a certain voluntary mechanism to effect the illogical creation of damaging contradictions, the description of a comedy.

    Let me know if anyone wants to effect peace. The process is disguised by simplicity of such brilliance that reveals the nature of the creator. Such simplicity that no one has ever responded to thousands of such invitations, by design of the power-damaged minds of peace advocates (and all institutionally trained minds) who fear peace more than war.

    Respectfully, DougBuchanan.com

  3. “Let me know if anyone wants to effect peace. The process is disguised by simplicity of such brilliance that reveals the nature of the creator. Such simplicity that no one has ever responded to thousands of such invitations, by design of the power-damaged minds of peace advocates (and all institutionally trained minds) who fear peace more than war.”

    OK Doug, what is it?

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