ed note–BUT REMEMBER, ANYONE WHO SAYS THAT THERE IS A CONCERTED, ORGANIZED CONSPIRACY ON THE PART OF JEWISH INTERESTS IN AMERICA TO AFFECT US FOREIGN POLICY IN SUCH A WAY THAT IT RESULTS IN WAR FOR ISRAEL’S BENEFIT IS AN ANTI-SHEMITE.

Mondoweiss

The U.S. media have been sadly incurious about the origins of yesterday’s unprecedented Open Letter of 47 Republicans to the Iranian leadership seeking to block the president’s likely deal with Iran. The press has portrayed the letter as the work of Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, a 37-year-old freshman senator so new to the limelight that the New York Times got his name wrong on first impression. But as a Times commenter writes, “Does anyone really believe the ‘freshman senator from Arkansas’ wrote the letter? No.”

The media are all over the unprecedented nature of the letter — which informs Iranian hardliners that Obama’s likely deal with Iran is a “mere executive agreement.” Chris Matthews and Chris Hayes and Michael Steele on MSNBC last night all expressed outrage or surprise. Paul Waldman at the Washington Post calls the letter “stunning” and “appalling.” But apart from a passing reference to neocons from Matthews, no one is looking under the hood.

I don’t know who wrote the letter, but I can tell you whose fingerprints are on it: the only folks who are supporting it publicly, the hard-right Israel lobby. Even as Cotton himself splutters on national television, rightwing lobby groups are the main voices out there defending the letter.

Like Bill Kristol of the Emergency Committee for Israel:

Cotton open letter: “Just so you know, we’re a constitutional democracy. Congress (or next president) has a say.” Dem response: Hysteria.

J Street’s Dylan Williams fingers Bill Kristol for writing the letter:

Who gave @SenTomCotton & others the awful idea for the Iran letter? Seems like Sarah Palin-for-VP-level bad advice doesn’t it @BillKristol ?

There’s a reason for Williams’s suspicion. Kristol’s Emergency Committee for Israel gave Tom Cotton nearly $1 million in his race for the Senate just five months ago, Eli Clifton reported. “Cotton received $960,250 in supportive campaign advertising in the last month.” (Thanks to Kay24 in comments).

Cotton also got $165,000 from Elliott Management Paul Singer’s hedge fund. Singer is the billionaire who is trying to stop Obama’s Iran talks (Clifton’s reporting again). He funds the Israel Project too– Josh Block’s efforts.

Josh Block has been standing up for the letter on Twitter. And the rightwing Israel Project offered support for the letter in an email last night:

Many analysts believe that without congressional approval, if a final deal with Iran is reached, it will not outlast President Barack Obama’s tenure as President of the United States. Without congressional involvement, the Obama administration would strike a deal with Iran through executive action which could signal to the Iranians that the “deal would be with the President alone,” writes Harvard Law School Professor Jack Goldsmith. He continues, “The bottom line, then, is that any deal struck by President Obama with Iran will probably appear to the Iranians to be, at best, short-term and tenuous.  And so we can probably expect, at best, only a short-term and tenuous commitment from Iran in return.”
When it comes to the Iran negotiations, the Obama administration says that they only see a role for Congress  when it comes to sanctions. If a final agreement is reached, they will eventually look to Congress for the lifting of sanctions. The White House said that Congress has had a role to play when it has drafted and passed the sanctions legislation that President Obama subsequently signed into law. The White House does not believe that an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program would require congressional approval.

The letter has gotten support from David Frum, the former Bush aide who wrote of taking on Saddam Hussein, “It’s victory or Holocaust.” On twitter:

“Time after time, Obama has told Congress to go to hell. Now Congress is telling Obama to go to hell.”

The Republican Jewish Coalition, a pro-Israel group, has also supported the letter.

Josh Block used to work at AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and is sometimes thought to speak for AIPAC. AIPAC is staying silent, while pushing further sanctions on Iran.

But former AIPAC staffer MJ Rosenberg has explained why he believes AIPAC penned the letter. As he tweeted today:

Nothing happens on Capitol Hill related to Israel unless and until Howard Kohr (AIPAC chief) wants it to happen. Nothing.

What network is behind this letter? People have a right to know. The media should be sending reporters out to dig into these connections. Imagine if the Koch Brothers were pushing some initiative on states’ rights or abortion. Would the media be so incurious? No. The scandal of the Netanyahu speech and the efforts by Israel to derail US negotiations with Iran has surely exposed the workings of the Israel lobby to the eyes of the American public to an unprecedented degree. But the media have to do more.

10 thoughts on “Senator who spearheaded letter to Iran got $1 million from Kristol’s ‘Emergency Commitee for Israel’”
  1. The Israeli regime and the Neocons led by AIPAC have been pushing the US to attack Iran since early 90s, claiming that it is on the verge of having nuclear weapons (Israel has more than 400 nuclear head and is considered a danger to the Middle East and Europe).
    Those Neocons are the enemy of the American people. They will will NEVER give up until they get an American presidential candidate who is willing to sacrifice his people for some dirty money to fund his/her election campaign. WAY TO GO AMERICA 🙂
    It seems that Senator Cotton has been groomed to be that guy. He may be the 2016 or 2020 presidential candidate. Obama was a new senator too.

    Since Truman presidency, those Neocons are good at picking their guy, groom him, and give him all the money he needs to achieve their goals. Would they succeed this time in driving the US into a war with Iran? They may because they do not CARE about what happens to the American people. All what matters is the SUPREMACY of Israel and its control of the Middle East AT ANY PRICE TO THE US.
    During WWI, England was losing the war. the Zionists (Neocons) committed to DRAG the US into the war to save UK from being defeated. In return, they secured the Balfour Declaration in which the UK promised them to give Palestine to the Zionists after defeating Turkey.
    What was the price to the American people. The loss of 217,000 American soldiers who were killed in a war they have nothing to do with it other than some Zionist crooks managed to “convince” a corrupted president to join the war.
    That is pathetic, but these are historical facts.

  2. Personally, I could care less whether Congress sends any foreign national or government correspondence. “Happy Birthday” or “Let’s work together”, matters not. However, the intent of this Cotton letter undermines America’s best interest and the bothersome point.

    The letter is intended to disrupt improving America’s relationship through negotiations with Iran by preventing an agreement.

    Without the Cotton letter, the Zionist secret would remain hidden. Today, Americans are asking questions about our relationship with Iran and why Israel controls Congress.

    How we proceed with this revelation is important.

  3. I suppose of you came from a philosophy of looking at the rest of the World as enemies. I guess it would instill paranoia into the psyche. They ARE mentally ill.

    What should the World so with these, including Michael Douglas? Put them in zoos and let them pass their time away playing monopoly?

    They have no inventiveness. All of what they have they either plagiarized, stole, copied, or took over from others that did the real work. They are such boring little creatures really. But they are to be feared more than pitied. The days of showering them in pity are over.

  4. When the American people finally realize what tribe enslaved them, like the people in all empires eventually did, they will be thrown to the wolves of war or an invasion or at least internal strive, like all empires ended. If Americans keep going along, it also will mean more war for the tribe’s benefit and their plutocrat minions.

  5. So ……. how does ISRAEL assist AMERICA with the Russian nuclear threat?
    ……………………….. Israel HELPS OUR ENEMIES.
    By far the most egregious damage done by Johnathan Pollard was to steal classified documents relating to the US Nuclear Deterrent relative to the USSR and send them to Israel. According to sources in the US State Department, Israel then turned around and traded those stolen nuclear secrets to the USSR in exchange for increased emigration quotas from the USSR to Israel. Other information that found its way from the US to Israel to the USSR resulted in the loss of American agents operating inside the USSR. Casper Weinberger, in his affidavit opposing a reduced sentence for Pollard, described the damage done to the United States thus, “[It is] difficult to conceive of a greater harm to national security than that caused by… Pollard’s treasonous behavior.”
    The United States’ nuclear deterrent cost an estimated FIVE TRILLION taxpayer dollars during the 50s and 60s to build and maintain, and less than $100,000 for Pollard to undermine. Isral now lobbies for his release, having granted him Israeli citizenship.
    Israel SOLD America’s drone/military technology to China ….. Israel has helped China LEAP forward with America’s technology.
    Israel SOLD OUR miniature cooling system for missiles to China.
    …..Israel, where government and business work hand in hand, has obtained significant advantage by systematically stealing American technology with both military and civilian applications. The US developed technology is then reverse engineered and used by the Israelis to support their own exports with considerably reduced research and development costs, giving them a huge advantage against US competitors. Sometimes, when the technology is military in nature and winds up in the hands of an adversary, the consequences can be serious. Israel has sold advanced weapons systems to China that are believed to incorporate technology developed by American companies, including the Python-3 air-to-air missile and the Delilah cruise missile. There is evidence that Israel has also stolen Patriot missile avionics to incorporate into its own Arrow system and that it used US technology obtained in its Lavi fighter development program, which was funded by the US taxpayer to the tune of $1.5 billion, to help the Chinese develop their own J-10 fighter.

  6. Hum. I’m sure everyone that sees him on TV thinks highly of him till he gets up from the table and then they see his shirt is not tucked in and has his shoes on backwards.

    The public never sees what that person is really like or how deceptive they are. They can’t think or function without covering themselves from what others may see.

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