House Majority leader Steny Hoyer, leading a delegation of 29 Democratic Congressmen, appeared to read from a cue card as he explained in Jerusalem that he had misgivings about Obama’s insistence on stopping colonial expansions (euphemistically called by the Israel lobby ‘settlements’). Hoyer downplayed Obama’s demand to stop the expansions and informed the White House from Jerusalem that that the issue “should be a subject of negotiations”. Hoyer refused comment on Kadema leader Tsizni Linvi’s ‘leak’ of part of the last years CIA study that Hoyer helped AIPAC bury on Capitol Hill. Appearing to quote from the now withdrawn ‘study’ Livni declared in a former Palestinian village, now renamed Tirat Hacarmel: “I see the despair and desperation of many Israelis. Hundreds of thousands see what is happening and arrange for a foreign passport, send their children to study abroad and even buy a house overseas.”
Livni got it right. Israeli officials see the writing on the wall and there is not deep affection for Israel on Capitol Hill. Most feel the US will sooner or later ‘cut Israel loose’ but still they don’t want its domestic lobby on their case. Many outside of Washington don’t understand this, and Americans in the Middle East are sometimes queried “why do you Americans love Israel so much when you claim you oppose colonialism elsewhere?”
