The Israel Lobby Cowbird

How is the Israel lobby like a swarm of cowbirds?  Cowbirds use the devious strategy of brood parasitism, arriving at the nest of more parentally-oriented birds to lay their own eggs.  Cowbirds then enjoy unburdened freedom to forage and thrive while their own young are raised, fed and protected by unsuspecting parents.  If an avian host dares remove the cowbird's offspring, the host's own eggs�if not the entire nest�will likely be destroyed by the watchful cowbird.  This coercive relationship is eerily similar to how Israel lobbying organizations flit about Washington, hatching operatives into the U.S. federal government to pursue a solitary goal�advancing the interests of a foreign state without the obligation of registering foreign agents or working through properly credentialed diplomats as the rest of the flock of nations must.

The sordid and occasionally illegal tactics used by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to intimidate Congress are well-documented.  But what precisely has all of AIPAC's past nest-destruction bought? Back when AIPAC got serious about launching economic warfare against Iran, it lobbied the Bush administration to create a new unit in the U.S. Treasury Department. Into this nest it laid Stuart Levey.  Levey's only observable qualification was an extreme commitment to Israel under the wing of ultra-Zionist Marty Peretz. Leadership of this Iran economic warfare unit is now captured roost exclusively for Israel Lobby hatchlings.  Levey's former law partner David Cohen simply flitted in when Levey departed the nest.

So too the lobby has tumbled out credible and experienced career diplomats and placed former AIPAC research director and AIPAC think tank founder Martin Indyk in charge of the on-going ruse known as the "Israel-Palestine peace process." Long on the payroll of Israeli-American media mogul and political operative Haim Saban, watchers have recently observed Indyk preening with his patron before winging off to the latest round of "peace negotiations." 

Perhaps the most secretive and dangerous Israel lobby cowbird policy egg was hatched in the National Security Agency in 2009 during the very months the Obama administration quietly dismissed espionage charges against AIPAC staff. According to whistleblower Edward Snowden, the wholesale transfer of raw NSA intercepts on American citizens to Israel has been ongoing since that time. The transfer is "authorized" by official doctrine that "the survival of the state of Israel is a paramount goal of US Middle East policy." This prime directive was secret because it is a blank check obligating American blood and treasure to a cause U.S. citizens never approved via any referendum or advise and consent process.  As in so many issues concerning Israel�from the U.S. criminal activities and cover-ups that enabled its clandestine nuclear program to funding for illegal occupation activities�the Israel lobby cowbird diligently rolled the eggs of U.S. interest right out of their federal nests.

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