{"id":402,"date":"2004-01-13T22:43:46","date_gmt":"2004-01-14T05:43:46","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2004-01-13T22:43:46","modified_gmt":"2004-01-14T05:43:46","slug":"fighting-the-israeli-palestinian-war-on-the-dirt-roads-of-alabama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2004\/01\/13\/fighting-the-israeli-palestinian-war-on-the-dirt-roads-of-alabama\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting the Israeli-Palestinian War on the Dirt Roads of Alabama"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From the Sunday <a href=http:\/\/www.montgomeryadvertiser.com\/NEWS\/StoryAlabamaTRIPS11W.htm><i>Montgomery [Ala.] Advertiser<\/i><\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><i>Davis Tops List for Perk Trips <\/p>\n<p>Rep. Artur Davis, D-Birmingham, accepted trips from special interests that cost nearly $13,000. Davis flew to Israel, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Pittsburgh. Davis&#8217; weeklong trip to Israel in August was valued at nearly $6,000. It was paid for by the American Israel Education Foundation, which is associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a powerful lobbying organization.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Davis represents <a href=http:\/\/gisias.mirs.nws.noaa.gov\/mirsweb\/public\/prods\/maps\/state_congdist_alabama.cfm>district 7<\/a>, which included my hometown prior to the last redistricting. The 7th is an exercise in racial gerrymandering, an effort to create a slam-dunk for an African-American\/Democratic candidate. It&#8217;s extremely poor and almost completely rural, save for a slice of inner-city Birmingham. And I guarantee you that Israel is the last thing on its voters&#8217; minds. I&#8217;ll bet that 99% of voters in the 7th, regardless of race or income, could not locate Israel on a map. <\/p>\n<p>And yet&#8230; the Israel lobby bought the 7th&#8217;s congressman. <a href=http:\/\/montgomeryadvertiser.com\/1news\/specialreports\/election2002\/federal\/062702_davis.html>From 2002<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><i>Artur Davis may want to thank New York for his stunning win over five-term Rep. Earl Hilliard in a mostly poor Alabama congressional district that has little in common with the Big Apple. <\/p>\n<p>Davis, a 34-year-old attorney trounced by Hillard two years ago, financed his campaign with a flood of donations from out of state \u2013 especially from New York, where Davis received money linked to his pro-Israel stance. <\/p>\n<p>Of the $306,482 Davis received in individual donations, nearly $189,000 came from New York state \u2013 $134,000 of that from New York City, according to FECInfo, a Web site that tracks political money. &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>On the other side, Hilliard received support from Arab-Americans, who liked his call for a balanced U.S. policy toward the Mideast. <\/p>\n<p>Jim Zogby, president of the Washington-based Arab American Institute, said Hilliard received many donations from Arab-Americans in response to a column he wrote discussing the way Jews were backing Davis. <\/p>\n<p>A pro-Palestinian group posted a Web site backing Hilliard, and Arab-Americans were among Hilliard\u2019s campaign workers.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Another cost of empire: the importation of conflicts from all around the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Sunday Montgomery [Ala.] Advertiser: Davis Tops List for Perk Trips Rep. Artur Davis, D-Birmingham, accepted trips from special interests that cost nearly $13,000. Davis flew to Israel, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Pittsburgh. Davis&#8217; weeklong trip to Israel in August was valued at nearly $6,000. It was paid for by the American [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[676],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-antiwar-movement"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}