In June, John Conyers’ mock impeachment hearing “took an awkward turn when witness Ray McGovern, a former intelligence analyst, declared that the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel and military bases craved by administration ‘neocons’ so ‘the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world.’ He said that Israel should not be considered an ally and that Bush was doing the bidding of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,” according to the Washington Post.
“‘Israel is not allowed to be brought up in polite conversation,’ McGovern said. ‘The last time I did this, the previous director of Central Intelligence called me anti-Semitic.'”
Conyers quickly denounced the Post for “giv[ing] such emphasis to 100 seconds of a 3 hour and five minute hearing” and divorced himself from McGovern’s “anti-semitic assertion…I consider myself to be friend and supporter of Israel and there were a number of other staunchly pro-Israel members who were in attendance at the hearing. I do not agree with, support, or condone any comments asserting Israeli control over U.S. policy, and I find any allegation that Israel is trying to dominate the world or had anything to do with the September 11 tragedy disgusting and offensive.”
In August, Cindy Sheehan denied having written that her son “was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel.” Like Justin Raimondo, I hope she isn’t engaging in some doomed effort to “appease” the “War Party.”
Jane Fonda is scheduled to introduce George Galloway Sunday night here in Madison and Monday night in Chicago. Galloway just “caused paroxysms” in New York by “saying the planes that slammed into the twin towers four years ago did not come out of ‘a clear blue sky’. Rather it was the fault of the US and its foreign policies, especially on Israel. ‘I believe they emerged out of a swamp of hatred created by us’, he said. ‘I believe that it’s because of the total, complete unending and bottomless support for General Sharon’s crimes against the Palestinian people.'”
Will Fonda show up Monday if Galloway talks like that on Sunday? Will she even show up on Sunday? I’d be speculating even if she didn’t have a history of being an avid supporter of “General Sharon’s crimes.”