Make sure you scroll to the bottom where I enlarged and made bold... crazy stuff -- I would want a group that took action based on what was good for the UNITED STATES, wouldn't you?

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Bergen group wields a big stick for Israel
Wednesday, June 6, 2007

By JOHN CHADWICK
STAFF WRITER

An Englewood political action committee has emerged as one of the most powerful advocates for Israel, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash for U.S. congressional candidates.

NORPAC doesn't look like much at first glance. It operates from a private home and has only a few paid staffers.

What it does have is an abundance of money.

When Sen. Joseph Lieberman faced the political fight of his life last year, NORPAC stepped in with $140,000, the bulk of it in bundled contributions from individual donors, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan group that tracks campaign spending.

The reason for NORPAC's interest in a Connecticut race, in which Lieberman fended off a challenge from anti-war Democrat Ned Lamont, was simple.

"Lieberman was a friendly incumbent who was stellar on our issue," said Ben Chouake of Englewood, NORPAC's president.

The mostly volunteer group ventures far beyond the Northeast to back federal candidates, such as Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., whom it sees as supportive of the Jewish state. And it also helps defeat candidates, such as former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., whom it sees as hostile to Israel.

The group is wasting no time in gearing up for the 2008 presidential primaries.

It has asked members to contribute through fellow NORPAC activists working in the presidential campaigns of Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Edwards and Republicans John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Sam Brownback. Chouake said the group isn't making an endorsement, but is generally comfortable with those candidates' support for Israel and wants to reinforce that message.

"By doing it that way, you're saying you appreciate their support for the [U.S.-Israel] relationship," he said. "And it will help keep the importance of the issue in their eyes."

Because its members care collectively about a single issue, NORPAC spreads its money across the political spectrum.

"There was one year I had Tom DeLay at my home, and then the next week I had Richard Gephardt in my home," Chouake said. "And they're about as polar opposite as you can get, except on one issue, and that is U.S.-Israel relations."

The same approach applies in New Jersey, where, in 2006, NORPAC supported, among others, Rep. Steve Rothman, a liberal Democrat from Fair Lawn, and Rep. Scott Garrett, a conservative Republican from Sussex County.

Chouake traces his activism to the Holocaust. His mother escaped the Nazis, but lost most of her family.

"If you have that kind of background, you feel like you need to be proactive to prevent bad things from happening," he said. "I took this on as a personal responsibility."

The Cliffside Park doctor repeatedly warns that another Holocaust may be at hand -- this time via an Iranian nuclear strike against Israel.

"The president of Iran is preparing to repeat [Nazi] history," Chouake said in a statement posted on NORPAC's Web site. "Are you willing to stand by and watch helplessly as American Jews did in the 1940s?"

But not everyone agrees Israel is vulnerable.

"The Iranian regime is a nasty regime, but they are not suicidal," said Michael Levi, a fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations and an expert on Iran. "The No. 1 aim of the Iranian leadership is their own survival, and this talk of destroying Israel is largely rhetoric for domestic consumption."

One prominent American Jewish group, meanwhile, said the comparisons to Nazi Germany have no basis in reality. And it suggested groups like NORPAC impede the Mideast peace process.

"In 1933, Jews were absolutely powerless," said M. J. Rosenberg, director of policy for the Israel Policy Forum, a New York City-based group. "Now you have Israel, a country with nuclear weapons, an amazing army and air force."

Rosenberg said that groups like NORPAC, while undeniably effective at marshaling support for Israel, do nothing to induce the Jewish state to negotiate with its Arab neighbors.

"All these PACs tend to support the status quo, and we think the status quo is terrible for Israel," he said. "Our goal is to preserve Israel as a Jewish state and a democracy, and we think the only way to do that is for Israel to divest itself from the occupied territories."

Chouake said Israel shouldn't deal with Hamas, the Islamic militant group that Palestinians elected to run their govern- ment. And he makes sure that position is heard loud and clear in Washington.

In a show of power several weeks ago, about 700 NORPAC members packed 17 buses for a trip to Washington, where they met with hundreds of lawmakers from both political parties.

That level of activism, one rabbi said, represents a pattern going back decades in American Jewish life.

"The part of the community that is much more suspicious of Palestinian motives and Palestinian interests is simply more organized, far more politically aggressive and far more prepared to use their resources," said Rabbi Irwin Kula of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a Manhattan-based think tank.

A North Jersey Arab-American activist said his community couldn't match the clout of the pro-Israel lobby. Nevertheless, Aref Assaf has started his own think tank -- the American Arab Forum -- to express his view that U.S. foreign policy is too one-sided toward Israel.

"We don't feel we have to match the pro-Israel lobby dollar for dollar," Assaf said. "We want to just engage the issues and show that a more balanced policy is in favor of U.S. interests and will help bring peace and security to Israel and the Palestinians."

E-mail: chadwick@northjersey.com
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Fast facts

• NORPAC is one of the most powerful pro-Israel advocates in the nation.

• The mostly volunteer group based in North Jersey raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for congressional candidates.

• It has volunteers working in the campaigns of Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Edwards and Republicans John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Sam Brownback.

• NORPAC backs candidates from both political parties, focusing only on their record on Israel.

• The pro-Israel lobby has helped forge a close relationship between Israel and the United States.

• The U.S. government gave Israel $2.68 billion in economic and military assistance in 2005, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

so... a bunch of jewish people that just give out money if you support israel.. Now.. why do we support israel. A country that goes all willy nilly and attackes its neighbors and stuff.

No Muslim or Arab counterweight to the Israeli lobby? Ha.

The mere threat of another oil embargo gives the US government more than plenty of enough time to listen to their concerns. They speak indirectly every time the oil company lobbies have something to say.

If there was not such dependence on mid east oil, there would be NO US governmental concern for the Arab middle east, Palestinian Arabs, or anything else over there, except humanitarian aid following a natural disaster.

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

Ah....to be young...D... & full of C..

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Matt (SD,CA)

1984 300SD.. White/Chrome Bunts..Green

1997 2500 Dodge Ram 5.9 Cummins 12 Valve 36 PSI of Boost = 400+hp & 800+tQ .. ..Greenspeed

2004 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 Quad Cab Cummins 5.9 H.O "596hp/1225tq" 6 spd. Man. Leather Heated seats/Loaded..Flame Red....GREENSPEED

Global warming...Doing my part, Smokin da hippies..

Fight the good fight!......

Here we go again ...

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I can hardly believe that a PAC is single-issue oriented. How could this happen?

B

By "or anything else over there" -- do you mean Israel as well?

I am sorry to be unclear, but I wasn't intending to speak of Israel. That's nations concerns are those of the USA, because Israel is considered a US ally, and it has an active lobby, all its own, as you mentioned. It's been stated there are more people of the Jewish faith residing in NYC than in all of Israel.

My belief is that our dependence on mideast oil is the driving force for our concern and engagement in the middle east. Cordial relations with the Islamic nations is deemed necessary to keep the mideast oil flowing to the USA. Horrific mistakes have been made by the USA in connection with that policy, and the policy seems to have been not to anger the Muslims, and keep the oil glowing, while still supporting Israel.

Almost impossible, and getting more difficult all the time, with the present U.S. stance and situation in Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq, and the Israeli action in Lebanon last year.

__________________
1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

Ahhh... Ok. So what you are saying is that we should only be playing nice with the Middle Eastern Countries for the sake of their oil -- Israel not included. When it comes to Israel we should play nice with them because they are our friend.

Do I have that correct?

it's like being nice to the weird kid so you can play with is cool toys... you just use the middle east even though they are weird and smell funny

Matt, you can't bang on Don's head, for that matter!
I am a strong supporter of the "Don Dynasty" ...

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You're not really that naive, are you?

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I maybe. Please explain it to me.

B

CNAC Distances Itself From Ex-CIA Official Over Israel Remark

By GARY SHAPIRO
Staff Reporter of the Sun
June 7, 2007
The taxpayer-funded Center for Naval Analyses is distancing itself from remarks made by a former CIA official, Michael Scheuer, in which Mr. Scheuer criticized "the U.S. citizen Israel-firsters who dominate the American governing elite."
A complaint about the presentation prompted the president of the Virginia-based CNA Corporation, which operates the center, Robert Murray, to take the unusual step of issuing a memo apologizing to any participant who took offense. The memo says one person at their workshop on the Middle East was offended but that other participants might also have been offended.
At a CNAC-sponsored roundtable on April 9, Mr. Scheuer had said, "By defining bin Laden and his ilk as would-be Islamist Hitlers, the U.S. citizen Israel-firsters who dominate the American governing elite ensure that those who question the nature and benefit of current U.S.- Israel ties are slandered as pro-Nazi, anti-Semites."
The memo from CNAC, dated April 18 and intended for workshop participants, does not mention Mr. Scheuer by name. But the memo says that the organization invites people whom they believe to be knowledgeable, does not review their remarks in advance, and does not take responsibility for remarks of any speaker. In the memo, Mr. Murray wrote that the aim of the off-the-record discussions was to promote dialogue "on important and controversial issues."
Asked for comment, a spokesperson for CNAC told The New York Sun, "the memo is an accurate reflection of our views on this matter."
Mr. Scheuer told the Sun that his remarks at the workshop were the same as what he has since said at other forums. At the April workshop, whose topic was "Islamist Aspirations for a Modern-day Caliphate," Mr. Scheuer said that "the Israel-firsters" had used the idea of Islamofascism in 2006 "to slander and quiet" a dean of Harvard University, Stephen Walt, and a University of Chicago professor, John Mearsheimer. The pair had co-authored a paper in 2006 that, as Mr. Scheuer said, "critiqued at length the prolonged, deranging, and clearly negative impact the Israeli lobby has had on the formulation and conduct of U.S. foreign policy." Mr. Scheuer, the former head of the American intelligence unit tracking Osama bin Laden, went on to say that a professor at Johns Hopkins University, Eliot Cohen, journalists David Gergen, Max Boot, and others had arrogated themselves the right to decide who was good and patriotic "among their fellow citizens based on the attitude of individuals toward Israel."
Mr. Scheuer, the author of "Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror," denied his speech was anti-Semitic and said that a complaint about it was an effort to stifle his free speech.
In 2005, the senior editor at Commentary magazine, Gabriel Schoenfeld, sharply criticized remarks that Mr. Scheuer had made at another think tank. At an on-the-record event at the Council on Foreign Relations in February of that year, Mr. Scheuer had described Israel as operating in America "probably the most successful covert-action program in the history of man" and offered as an example the Holocaust Museum.

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