few things are more disturbing than the approach of american politicians to israel. indeed they often seem to be actual agents - spokesmen, mouthpieces - of the israeli government, repeating its formulations and recapitulating its rigidity mechanically. every consideration of this matter in the media connects the response of presidential candidates to fundraising, which i must say is an observation that, if it came from anyone besides everyone, would sound amazingly anti-semitic: everyone knows where the money is, i guess, or who controls the banking system or something. but even if all that is true, it would be (or, it is) a devastating indictment of the american political system to attribute all these people's positions to $$$. steve rattner said it on morning joe. commentary magazine (for god's sake) talked about how the move will "depress" democratic fundraising. obviously, the united states can have no role in making peace if any of the republicans running get elected, since their position is word-for-word the position of one of the parties, and it's entirely non-negotiable because they can't finance their campaigns otherwise. palestinians' influence on the republican party - like any group's, i suppose - is precisely proportional to their presence on wall street.
meanwhile, i would have thought that what obama said yesterday was simply a slightly-more straightforward formulation of the obvious basis of negotiations for decades. but even that is an insane radical departure in the eyes of netanyahu and hence in the eyes of mitt romney, tim pawlenty, jon huntsman, etc etc. it's not like obama actually criticized the brutality of israel's blockade of gaza or something, or went all "apartheid wall." can you imagine if he did? just to begin with, it'd be "anti-semitism!" tell you what, and speaking of campaign contributions and who's operating mitt romney's mouth: why don't you concentrate on making anti-semitic stereotypes false, rather than pointedly confirming them while constantly using the accusation to short-circuit even a rudimentary discussion of what is actually going on?
