Freedom’s Watch and “Strong Supporters of Israel”

In an article that expands our knowledge base about the anything-but-grassroots “Freedom’s Watch” (about which I have posted here and here), Paul Kane and Jonathan Weisman wrote about its ambitions — among other things, to raise $250 million this year to become the right-wing answer to MoveOn.org — in the Washington Post Sunday. The article noted that the group, after focusing its initial work on Iraq and Middle East policy, is now running “aggressively negative anti-illegal-immigration ads” on behalf of Republican candidates.

As has been previously reported, the group was conceived at a meeting last March of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) and the Post article tends to confirm the notion that it is a kind of RJC project. But, apart from the article’s substance, what I found most provocative about the article was one particular paragraph toward the end in which the authors wrote: “Many in Freedom [sic] Watch’s donor base — including [multi-billionaire Sheldon] Adelson, the chairman and chief executive of the Last Vegas Sands Corp. [about whom the New York Times published a profile just last week] and [former Amb. Mel] Sembler, the strip-mall magnate from St. Petersburg, Fla. — have always been strong supporters of Israel. The group’s initial ad blitz in defense of Bush’s troops buildup in Iraq came naturally out of those interests.” I found this paragraph compelling for two reasons.

First, the latter sentence makes a connection that the mainstream media has almost entirely ignored and that remains somewhat taboo — the connection between the Iraq War and “support” for Israel . (I have long contended that, along with the kind of global geo-strategic thinking that first came to public attention in the leaked 1992 draft Defense Planning Guidance (DPG) overseen by then-Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Paul Wolfowitz, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the main impetus for war — at least, for the neo-conservatives around Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld both inside and outside the administration — was tilting the balance of power in the Middle East decisively in favor of Israel.) Unfortunately, having asserted this very controversial — if rarely voiced — connection, the Post article does not elaborate precisely how Freedom’s Watch’s backing for the “Surge” arose from its “support” for Israel. It’s as if the Post believes that the connection is common knowledge and that no further explanation is needed. Yet the Post, like other mainstream media, has never made clear what the connection between support for Israel and the Iraq War is.

That leads to the second point: the assertion that the Freedom’s Watch’s donor base, including Adelson and Sembler, are “strong supporters of Israel.” I don’t doubt that the group’s donors consider themselves “strong supporters of Israel”, but what precisely is meant by that? If the phrase means supporters of the government of Israel, then it is inaccurate, because the positions of Adelson and other Watch donors on such key questions as Jerusalem, the West Bank — indeed, any territorial compromise — even Annapolis and a two-state solution, are well to the right of the current Israeli government. In fact, Adelson, like most RJC heavyweights, are strong supporters of former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party which, the last time I checked, constituted the government’s chief political opposition and is maneuvering to bring it down. So, if they oppose the current government of Israel, in what way are they “strong supporters of Israel?”

This kind of journalistic shorthand — associating neo-conservatives and their organizations like the RJC and Freedom’s Watch — with being ”pro-Israel” or “strong supporters of Israel” — is unfortunately pervasive in the mainstream media. It is not only inaccurate; it is also dangerous. It implies that neo-conservatives have Israel’s best interests at heart, which, as in the case of the Iraq war (and last summer’s conflict with Hezbollah) and in so many other instances, is demonstrably not the case. It also puts those individuals or organizations — particularly in the American Jewish community — that are very concerned about Israel but that believe that the neo-conservatives have actually undermined the country’s security in a kind of political limbo. After all, if Adelson, Freedom’s Watch, and the RJC are considered “pro-Israel” or “strong supporters of Israel,” what does that make Americans for Peace Now or the Israel Policy Forum, both of which consider themselves “pro-Israel” and “strong supporters of Israel” but also believe, contrary to hard-line neo-conservatives, that a two-state solution with major territorial compromises that include East Jerusalem are the only way to ensure Israel’s security and long-term survival?

This kind of lazy journalistic labeling has very real and very unfortunate political consequences.

Jim Lobe

Jim Lobe served for some 30 years as the Washington DC bureau chief for Inter Press Service and is best known for his coverage of U.S. foreign policy and the influence of the neoconservative movement.

SHOW 28 COMMENTS

28 Comments

  1. Jim, I agree and am concerned that Freedom’s Watch will in effect feed anti-semitism.

    This may be an issue of the way its finances are reported. But the bigger anti-semitism “pull” in my view is the simple fact of such financing.

    Kane and Weisman are at least reporting what has been acknowledged too little in the public mind.

    The real “Israeli interests” don’t have a well financed public voice. The usual U.S. he-said/she-said journalism thereby not catch the difference.

    Real Israeli interest can only be acknowledged if the controversal position of Freedom Watch and the Likud right is aired first. So maybe its a start of the discussion that will later allow the other side to jump in?

  2. Jim,

    If “strong supporters of Israel” is inaccurate, as you have established pretty conclusively, what short phrase do you think you might suggest to describe what they really are? An alternative for those lazy copywriters out there to grab hold of at deadline would be very useful. Pro-Likud? Supporters of the Right-Wing faction in Israel? Pro-No-Compromisniks? Refuse-Likudniks? Old Testament Fundamentalists? I think it will be hard, but a very good idea, to come up with a concise label.

    How about supporters of Greater Israel?

  3. Thank you Jim for sharing your astute observations with us, I enjoy following your work.

    I am trying to understand fully your statement about the Neocons not truly being supporters of Israel (apologies for not being able to word my thoughts better… I am presently sick with a horrible cold).

    (Your statement:

    “…It implies that neo-conservatives have Israel’s best interests at heart, which, as in the case of the Iraq war (and last summer’s conflict with Hezbollah) and in so many other instances, is demonstrably not the case.”)

    Are you saying this because you mean to say the US is truly their foremost concern? Vis~a~vis oil for their world domination plan?
    Please help me understand what you mean. ^_^

    I feel very strongly that the Adelsons and the Semblers of this country, et al, and especially our elected representatives in Washington DC, should be made to swear (another) an oath of allegiance to the US alone, on pain of losing their citizenship permanently. – Israel has never declared themselves to be our ally. On the contrary, they boast of running our country.

    As for ‘b’s’ ‘anti-semite’ comment… that horse is dead – stop kicking it
    Jesus was a ‘Semite’ while He was here, Jews and Arabs both are ‘Semitic’ – so are some Zionists, even (also European & Khazar, I realize) – so knock it off, already.

    OK, I’ll go back to ‘lurk’ mode now –
    Please join me in praying for our erstwhile glorious country… it needs all the help it can get.

    Nanette

  4. I should clarify…. by ‘world domination’, I think ‘global superiority’ would have been a better choice; sorry.

  5. It seems obvious to me that “Israel Govt” has been systematically killing, torturing, harassing, ethnic cleansing and terrifying “non Jews” in Palestine for 60 years now in order to steal their land & property. Then, after seizing this property “they” claim to be the victims. There is no honest view in the MSM.

    I believe any person who does not clearly & openly voice full opposition to these kind of horrendous illegal acts is complicit in crimes against ALL humanity, including good Jews & Israelis.
    Alternatively, if they don’t oppose this outrageous greed, they might be brainwashed with “supremacism”, “religion” or other things……

Comments are closed.