The Jews are starting to see through the GOP

That is, the Jewish machers (big-shots), who believe that we needed to kowtow to the right wing becuase they were "good for Israel." That was debatable from the beginning, but now, since the GOP and the wingnuts are brazenly trying to use the "good for Israel" meme to lauch a second ill-advised crazy war. it's totally obvious that the right wing (whether American or Israeli) is not only bad for Israel, it's bad for American Jews:

Republican chairman booed at AJCommittee event

The chairman of the Republican Party was booed at an American Jewish Committee event over comments on Iraq.

Ken Mehlman, who is Jewish, said Iraq posed less of a challenge now than under Saddam Hussein.

Mehlman was otherwise politely received when he spoke Tuesday at the AJCommittee’s 100th anniversary celebrations in Washington, and he got warm applause when he said the Bush administration would not tolerate an Iranian nuclear bomb and always would stand by Israel.

Mehlman's shameless pander was obvious. Bust so was the smackdown:

The room burst into applause, however, when AJCommittee board member Edith Everett asked Mehlman to “take a message” to President Bush to stop linking Israel and Iran.

“It does not help Israel and it does not help American Jews to appear to be stimulators of any action against Iran,” Everett said.

She added that “it’s easy to understand why Iran is not worried about us” because Iraq is consuming so many U.S. resources.

Mehlman replied by acknowledging that Iraq was a “challenge,” but claimed it’s “less of a challenge than when Saddam Hussein was in power.”

The room filled with boos and hisses.

My comments:

This is the sort of thing (the fact that ruling party big-shots feel the need to pander, and that the Jewish machers warmly accept such pandering) that makes people think that the "Israel Lobby" or even "The Jooz" control Washington and don't allow for rational discourse about Middle East issues. I'm glad to see at least this first attempt at a mild smackdown. BTW, I can't see how Iran having a few primitive atomic bombs, or even a bunch of more sophisticated ones, is any more and exisential threat to Israel than China having the bomb was an exisential threat to the US in the 1970's. So pairing the Iranian bomb problem with "standing by Israel" was such an obvious pander that it was quickly shot down by the intended audience.

It would have been nice if Ms. Everett could have said with a straight face that American Jewish organizations, **were NOT** "stimulating action against Iran. Unfortunately, a lot of the junk mail I've been getting from these same Jewish organizations (I don't think the AJCommittee was one of them) indicates that the Jewish organizations are getting the vapors (in public, at least) over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's rantings, which certainly doesn't help calm things down. I wonder who in the American Jewish Establishment is setting up this idiotic Party Line.

Personally, I think Mahmoud's rantings are calculated, designed to goad either the US or Israel into attacking him, the better to get his foes involved in a serious quagmire. This is a tactic, pioneered by the boxer Mohammad Ali, called "Rope-a-Dope." Anyway, Mahmoud is not the sole source of power in Iran, I doubt that Iran is going to try to liquidate Israel any time soon, and using the Bomb to do so would only result in Iran becoming a radioactive slag heap. So everyone shouldn't lose sleep over Mahmoud. Now, Dubya, on the other hand, it's OK to lose sleep over him. I know I do.

I also would like to point out the obvious dangers to the American Jewish community if the general American public ever gets the idea that "the Jews" pushed Bush into an Iran quagmire that is only doomed to fail and may signal the end of the United States as a world power. This would be expecially ironic, considering that most American Jews oppose both the Iraq war and an Iranian adventure. Heck, even the Israelis think Bush and his neocon crew are nuts. But I shudder to think how Bush and Rove will lash out and blame others when this goes sour. Better to be on record right from the start as opposing this idiocy.