Israel to ask Washington for limits on Saudi missile deal

[WoodPeckr]

Surprise, surprise, surprise.
Looks like Israel is pissed at the US and plans on getting things changed more to Israel's liking.
This is an interesting 'tug-o-war' between Israel & the US MIC.
Wonder who will win this battle!
Will it be Tel Aviv or the Merchants of Death, who only want to make a few more BUCKS by selling weapons to BOTH SIDES!......


Israel to ask Washington for limits on Saudi missile deal

Jun. 5, 2007 21:46 | Updated Jun. 6, 2007 1:26
By YAAKOV KATZ AND HERB KEINON

A high-level Israeli delegation will meet with officials in Washington this week and demand that restrictions be clamped on the proposed US sale of state-of-the-art weaponry to Saudi Arabia, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The talks are expected to center on the US decision to sell Joint Direct Attack Munition satellite-guided "smart bombs" to Saudi Arabia. The sale has caused consternation in Jerusalem over concern it could tip the balance of power in the region.

If the sale does go through, Israel has expressed interest in acquiring the F-22 stealth bomber - a plane that can avoid radar detection and is the world's most advanced fighter jet - to maintain its qualitative edge. In April, the Post reported that the IAF had inquired about obtaining the aircraft and had requested that the Defense Ministry present the request on its behalf to the Pentagon.

Israel is to be represented at the talks by Defense Ministry Diplomatic-Military Bureau head Amos Gilad and IDF Planning Directorate head Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan. The US team is to be headed by Beth McCormick, the acting deputy undersecretary of defense for technology security policy and national disclosure policy, and the director of the Defense Department Defense Technology Security Administration.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is scheduled to meet with US President George W. Bush in Washington on June 19. The Saudi arms sale is expected to be a topic of discussion.

The F-22 formally entered operational service in the US Air Force in December 2005. It has not been sold outside the US because of a federal law barring export sale of the aircraft. Congress would need to lift a nine-year ban on its sale to clear the path for an Israeli purchase of the jet.

Japan recently asked the Pentagon for technical data on the fighter jet and is said to be close to making a decision on whether to submit a formal request to purchase the aircraft.

Meanwhile, defense officials on Tuesday told the Post disagreements had emerged between Israel and the US over the installation of Israeli technology in the Joint Strike Fighter, also known as the F-35, which is being developed by Lockheed Martin. IAF commander Maj.-Gen. Elazar Shkedy has announced plans to purchase the aircraft and Lockheed officials have said that delivery could begin the earliest by 2014.

But according to defense officials, the Pentagon and the Defense Ministry were in disagreement over the integration of Israeli-manufactured technology into the aircraft, as has been done with past fighter jets the IAF bought from the US, including the F-15 and the F-16. Last June, Israel threatened to cancel plans to buy the aircraft after over a similar dispute......

[More]

 

[papasmerf]

So Woody, what would you do??

 

[Anderson]

OH MY GOD !!!!!!!


Israel is concerned with her survival and The United States wants to sell weapons .


In another urgent news update.....WoodPeckr wants to make money today , and he also wants to live in peace !

How tragic, where does it end ?

....

 

[WoodPeckr]

...and on a related note.....

Why oh why, would some come to the conclusion Israel and their proxies have far too much influence in the US government, after things like this happen!.....

CNAC Distances Itself From Ex-CIA Official Over Israel Remark

By GARY SHAPIRO
Staff Reporter of the Sun
June 7, 2007

The taxpayer-funded Center for Naval Analyses is distancing itself from remarks made by a former CIA official, Michael Scheuer, in which Mr. Scheuer criticized "the U.S. citizen Israel-firsters who dominate the American governing elite."

A complaint about the presentation prompted the president of the Virginia-based CNA Corporation, which operates the center, Robert Murray, to take the unusual step of issuing a memo apologizing to any participant who took offense. The memo says one person at their workshop on the Middle East was offended but that other participants might also have been offended.

At a CNAC-sponsored roundtable on April 9, Mr. Scheuer had said, "By defining bin Laden and his ilk as would-be Islamist Hitlers, the U.S. citizen Israel-firsters who dominate the American governing elite ensure that those who question the nature and benefit of current U.S.- Israel ties are slandered as pro-Nazi, anti-Semites."

The memo from CNAC, dated April 18 and intended for workshop participants, does not mention Mr. Scheuer by name. But the memo says that the organization invites people whom they believe to be knowledgeable, does not review their remarks in advance, and does not take responsibility for remarks of any speaker. In the memo, Mr. Murray wrote that the aim of the off-the-record discussions was to promote dialogue "on important and controversial issues."

Asked for comment, a spokesperson for CNAC told The New York Sun, "the memo is an accurate reflection of our views on this matter."

Mr. Scheuer told the Sun that his remarks at the workshop were the same as what he has since said at other forums. At the April workshop, whose topic was "Islamist Aspirations for a Modern-day Caliphate," Mr. Scheuer said that "the Israel-firsters" had used the idea of Islamofascism in 2006 "to slander and quiet" a dean of Harvard University, Stephen Walt, and a University of Chicago professor, John Mearsheimer. The pair had co-authored a paper in 2006 that, as Mr. Scheuer said, "critiqued at length the prolonged, deranging, and clearly negative impact the Israeli lobby has had on the formulation and conduct of U.S. foreign policy." Mr. Scheuer, the former head of the American intelligence unit tracking Osama bin Laden, went on to say that a professor at Johns Hopkins University, Eliot Cohen, journalists David Gergen, Max Boot, and others had arrogated themselves the right to decide who was good and patriotic "among their fellow citizens based on the attitude of individuals toward Israel."

Mr. Scheuer, the author of "Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror," denied his speech was anti-Semitic and said that a complaint about it was an effort to stifle his free speech.

In 2005, the senior editor at Commentary magazine, Gabriel Schoenfeld, sharply criticized remarks that Mr. Scheuer had made at another think tank. At an on-the-record event at the Council on Foreign Relations in February of that year, Mr. Scheuer had described Israel as operating in America "probably the most successful covert-action program in the history of man" and offered as an example the Holocaust Museum.

 

[onthebottom]

So, a Holocaust museum is a "covert-action program".

Wow, this guy's a bit out there.

OTB

 

[WoodPeckr]

So, a Holocaust museum is a "covert-action program".

Wow, this guy's a bit out there.

OTB

What do you expect, he worked in the CIA.....

 

[onthebottom]

OH MY GOD !!!!!!!


Israel is concerned with her survival and The United States wants to sell weapons .


In another urgent news update.....WoodPeckr wants to make money today , and he also wants to live in peace !

How tragic, where does it end ?

....

I think we should sell them both what they're looking for.....

OTB

 

[WoodPeckr]

I think we should sell them both what they're looking for.....

OTB

Indeed!
The MIC would insist!.....

 

[basketcase]

...
At a CNAC-sponsored roundtable on April 9, Mr. Scheuer had said, "By defining bin Laden and his ilk as would-be Islamist Hitlers, the U.S. citizen Israel-firsters who dominate the American governing elite ensure that those who question the nature and benefit of current U.S.- Israel ties are slandered as pro-Nazi, anti-Semites."
...
Mr. Scheuer told the Sun that his remarks at the workshop were the same as what he has since said at other forums. At the April workshop, whose topic was "Islamist Aspirations for a Modern-day Caliphate," Mr. Scheuer said that "the Israel-firsters" had used the idea of Islamofascism in 2006 "to slander and quiet" a dean of Harvard University, Stephen Walt, and a University of Chicago professor, John Mearsheimer. The pair had co-authored a paper in 2006 that, as Mr. Scheuer said, "critiqued at length the prolonged, deranging, and clearly negative impact the Israeli lobby has had on the formulation and conduct of U.S. foreign policy." Mr. Scheuer, the former head of the American intelligence unit tracking Osama bin Laden, went on to say that a professor at Johns Hopkins University, Eliot Cohen, journalists David Gergen, Max Boot, and others had arrogated themselves the right to decide who was good and patriotic "among their fellow citizens based on the attitude of individuals toward Israel."

....

This is amusing to me. The guys try to claim that "the Lobby" (read Jewish conspiracy) controls the US and when they aren't given as much attention as they want, they claim it as proof of their claims. Maybe their loss of face has more to do with the weakness of their claims than the influence of others.

 

[Kitwat]

Basketcse you hit the nail right on the head. I suspect there are some real basketcases on this board who deserve the name more than you.

 

[scouser1]

if they build a holocaust museum in Washington DC, then someone should build a museum of the murder of the American Indians in Berlin

 

[basketcase]

OK, start raising funds.

 

[onthebottom]

if they build a holocaust museum in Washington DC, then someone should build a museum of the murder of the American Indians in Berlin

Why, do 30% of the worlds American Indians live in Berlin?

OTB

 

[osanowo]

Why, do 30% of the worlds American Indians live in Berlin?

OTB

I guess in this case the question should be: lived in Berlin...

 

[onthebottom]

I guess in this case the question should be: lived in Berlin...

One, I don't think you got my point.

Two, I think that's pretty fucking sick.

OTB

 

[Mcluhan]

Checking the wingnuts

This is amusing to me. The guys try to claim that "the Lobby" (read Jewish conspiracy)

From WIKI:

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is an American special interest group that lobbies the United States Congress and executive branch in favor of maintaining a close U.S.-Israel relationship. Describing itself as "America's Pro-Israel Lobby,"

NEW YORK TIMES
"The New York Times described AIPAC on July 6, 1987 as "a major force in shaping United States policy in the Middle East." The article also stated that: "The organization has gained power to influence a presidential candidate's choice of staff" (Read David Frum)

FORTUNE and THE NATIONAL JOURNAL
Fortune magazine asked Congressmen to rank the "25 most powerful" lobbying organizations in DC. In 2005, the National Journal did the same. Both times, AIPAC came in 2nd - ahead of, for instance, the AFL-CIO and the NRA, but behind the AARP. In 2001, it came in 4th on the Fortune list.

 

[basketcase]

Is it your contention that there is no pro-Israel Lobby in the United States? Is it your contention that, say, the Hutu, have succeeded in shifting US policy to their advantage in a way that Israel has?

You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist (I'm not) to see the enormous influence the pro-Israel lobby has on US policy.

Mearsheimer et. al are very reasonable professors whose work is accepted in respectable places like Foreign Affairs magazine, where many pro-Israel types also air their views.

Smearing everyone who makes a rather obvious point obscures intelligent distinctions as to the nature of Israeli influence.

I don't believe 6 Jewish guys rule the world, or other such rubbish. I do believe there are one hell of a lot of senior establishment types in the US in favour of Israel who refuse to separate their emotional solidarity with Israel with its moral, economic and political consequences. That's something any American deserves to ask.

They may well side with Israel ANYWAY. But asking the question isn't a crime.

In the usual slight of hand show, since AIPAC exists and because some believe they have an inordinate amount of power, they must control the decisions of the US.

Yes, there is a pro-Israel lobby. Yes, they try and influence decisions (as is the purpose of a lobby group). But no, the US does not support Israel because of this lobby but because the Israeli way of life is much closer to that of the US than any other nation in the region and the US benefits from it.

A while back, I posted lobby spending for the US and AIPAC didn't even appear anywhere near the top of the list.

You see them as all powerful because you want to view them as all powerful.

 

[osanowo]

One, I don't think you got my point.

Two, I think that's pretty fucking sick.

OTB

oh please...!

If people are obscene enough to defend this position then fuck them if they don't want to admit that the same has to happen for everyone.

So what now? There will only be a memory of the fallen if the lobbying is powerful? This is sick.

 

[hinz]

WoodPeckr, what would you gonna do when the Chinese sell their new reasonably sophisticated mobile IRBMs to the Saudis to replace their current antiquated IRBMs?

Or the Chinese substitutes (knocked down price) to the US state of the art weaponary?

Could Israel count the United States to leverage their influence and ask the Chinese to stop doing this? You know the Americans owe a lot of debts to the Chinese and the latter in defiant, routinely sell conventional weapons to the Iranians to murder the Jews by arming Hizbullah.

 

[WoodPeckr]

That 'Mythical Isreali Lobby' does get around.....

Controversial DePaul Professor Denied Tenure

Posted: Saturday, 09 June 2007 9:41AM

CHICAGO, Ill. (STNG) -- Culminating a highly public battle, DePaul University has denied controversial assistant political science Professor Norman Finkelstein tenure.

His case drew widespread interest because of the Jewish professor's blunt criticism of Jews and the state of Israel, and the attack on those views by Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz.

In a statement Friday, DePaul confirmed that while the political science department and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences had recommended tenure for Finkelstein, the college's dean and the University Board on Promotion and Tenure had recommended against it.

DePaul's president, the Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, made the final decision.

In an interview Friday, Finkelstein said he was "disappointed," but that the decision would not muzzle his views. "I met the standards of tenure required at DePaul, but it wasn't enough to overcome the political opposition to my speaking out on the Israel-Palestine conflict," he said.