Cheney mugs AIPAC — and American Jews

A Gallup poll released last month found that 77 percent of American Jews believe US military involvement in Iraq was a mistake from the get-go. (See our post of Feb. 28, “US Jews toughest foes of Iraq war.”)

Those findings, set against events emanating from this week’s annual policy conclave of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington, DC, throw into stark relief the radical disconnect between American Jews and the people who claim to be our “leaders.”

And a strange style of “leadership” it is, too — one that “leads” by toadying to powers-that-be.

For those who play the game, it is exhilarating to hobnob with the real movers and shakers, bask in their reflected glory and delude yourself that, in a democracy, they do your bidding. Until, that is, they demand that you do their bidding.

So it was that AIPAC invited Vice President Richard Cheney to lend some luster to their Monday session. To all outward appearances, it probably looked to the AIPACers like a perfect fit: AIPAC favors a hard line toward the Palestinians and Iran, and the vice president is the hardest of hardliners in the Bush administration.

AIPAC undoubtedly expected a love fest. What it got instead was a dose of the veep’s well-practiced menace.

“It is simply not consistent,” he intoned, “for anyone to demand aggressive action against the menace that is posed by the Iranian regime while at the same time acquiescing in a retreat from Iraq that would leave Israel’s best friend, the United States, dangerously weakened.”

Translation: You want us to protect Israel from Iran? Fine. Quid pro quo: support us on Iraq.

An editorial in the Forward’s March 16 edition clearly and forcefully dissects the threats inherent in Cheney’s message:

… Cheney was telling the Jewish community that the war in Iraq had been launched and fought in considerable measure for their benefit and Israel’s. That’s precisely the message that Israel’s worst enemies have been peddling for the past four years as America’s blood and treasure have been poured wastefully down the sinkhole of a misconceived and unwinnable war. It was a lie then, and it is a lie now. And now he seems to be casting Iran in the same light: as the Jews’ war.

…

… It is not the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq that threatens disaster to the United States and the entire Middle East. The disaster is already here; it was precipitated by the entry of American troops into Iraq. The American-led invasion turned Iraq from a dreary dictatorship into a maelstrom of communal violence and a breeding ground of terrorism. The toppling of the tin-pot tyrant Saddam Hussein removed Iran’s worst enemy, unleashing the Islamic Republic as a regional superpower. The continuing presence of American troops as unwanted occupiers in the fabled city of Baghdad is inflaming rage in the streets throughout the Muslim world, putting Americans and Israelis alike at greater risk than ever.

The burning question for America and its allies in the region, Muslim and Jewish alike, is how to end the nightmare of the Iraq quagmire as quickly as possible, with the least damage to the torn fabric of civilization.

— David Gradis