http://mondoweiss.net/2011/12/aipac-posterizes-obama-in-senate-100-0.html
How do they accomplish this---fear
snip-----But the Senate rebuffed the administration and voted unanimously, 100-0, for the sanctions.
Why did the Senate put aside appeals from Treasury secretary Tim Geithner, under secretary of the Treasury David Cohen, and Wendy Sherman, #3 at the State Department, all saying that the bill would be bad for business and bad for the U.S.'s efforts to build a coalition on Iran? Why did John Kerry, chairman of Senate Foreign Relations, acknowledge Tim Geithner's letter against the legislation, and then vote against his president?
The clear evidence is, Because the lobby wanted this amendment and these guys feared for their political lives. AIPAC led the charge. AIPAC rolled the amendment out 3 weeks ago, and then led a letter-writing campaign to US Senators on the amendment, known as Kirk-Menendez (in part for the Senator from AIPAC, Mark Kirk of Illinois). Here's the AIPAC memo from last month:
snip--AIPAC famously can get 70 Senators' signatures on a napkin inside of a day, as Goldberg himself reported. AIPAC got 76 Senate signatures on this letter to Obama rebuking his stance on Israel back in the spring of last year. There were 87 Senate signatures on this Senate letter of June 2010 telling Obama to back Israel's murderous response to the flotilla. When Gerald Ford thought to "reassess" Israel policy, he got a letter with 71 Senate signatures.
This time AIPAC got 100 against Obama!
The point here is that Obama is actually the most moderate on Israel issues of anyone in high elective office-- Ron Paul can't get arrested in New York. And when Obama tries to do something a little bit helpful, like calling for the settlement freeze a year back, he gets undermined by his own party. Because Likudniks basically control the Congress on these issues.
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