DEMOCRATIC HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER ATTACKS COLLEAGUE FOR TELLING TRUTH ABOUT AIPAC

THE HILL - House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) went after fellow Democrat Jim Moran of Virginia, calling on him to retract his comments about the Israel lobby. "His remarks were factually inaccurate and recall an old canard that is not true, that the Jewish community controls the media and the Congress," Hoyer said at a news conference in the Capitol. In an interview published in the September-October issue of Tikkun magazine, Moran said the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, "has pushed this war from the beginning … They are so well-organized, and their members are extraordinarily powerful -most of them are quite wealthy -they have been able to exert power."

TIKKUN - Rabbi Lerner asks Congressman Steny Hoyer and Congressman Eric Cantor to apologize not only to Congressman Moran but also to all American Jews who support peace and reconciliation in the Middle East. It took tremendous courage for Congressman Jim Moran to tell Tikkun magazine of the power and influence of AIPAC and other sections of the Israel Lobby. AIPAC is often described in the media as the most powerful lobby in Washington, D.C., so it is no surprise that its friends and supporters are now mobilizing to vilify Congressman Moran's comments.

House Republican Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor likened Congressman Moran to Adoph Hitler on September 18th. "Unfortunately, Jim Moran has made it a habit now to lash out to the American Jewish commnunit6\y. I think his remarks are reprehensible, I think his remarks are anachronistic, and hearken back to the day of Adolph Hitler, of the others, Mein Kamp, of the protocols of the elders of zion, other sources that have become reference to now, I'm sorry to say, a resurgent anti-semitic sentiment world wide."

And House Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer issued a statement which seemed to add to the witch hunt by stating that Moran had claimed that "the Jewish community controls the press, the media, the Congress, and other institutions" and that therefore Moran "certainly oughta retract remarks, and indicate he believes that he was inaccurate on the facts." Congressman Moran said no such thing.

Steny Hoyer, defeated anti-war Congressman John Murtha for the Democratic leadership post he now holds, and is reportedly one of the major forces inside the Democratic leadership rejecting any serious attempt to withhold funds for the war in Iraq and limiting what Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi might otherwise try to do to challenge Bush's war, is a perfect example of the power of the Israel Lobby to shape public discourse

What's new is that now that same McCarthyism (which labeled as "anti-American" anyone who criticized U.S. policies around the world, tactics actually first developed by the Stalinists all around the world who called "anti-socialist" anyone who criticized the brutal dictatorship of the Soviet Union), is now being used not on someone criticizing Israel, but on someone who dares criticize an American organization that has played a leading role in defending the most right-wing policies of the State of Israel. As former Israel Minister of Justice Yossi Beilin points out in an interview in Tikkun magazine, AIPAC does not defend and support the Israeli government's policies when Israel tried to move toward peace under Yitzhak Rabin - in fact, he reports, they actually sought to undermine Rabin's peace efforts.