Anyone interested in the impact of the neo-con foreign policy agenda in the United States should read Norman Birnbaum's assessment which is highlighted in part below. Go to the link for the entire aritcle.

 http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-americanpower/israel_potomac_4285.jsp

Israel on the Potomac: power under pressure
Norman Birnbaum
25 - 1 - 2007
The crisis of the neo-conservative foreign-policy agenda in the United States is having complex repercussions on pro-Israeli organisations and voices in Washington. . . he discussion of Jews in United States politics and society, too often attended by polemical and polarising rhetoric on all sides, can only benefit from calm inquiry with a strong, independent factual basis. If this is true in the context of domestic policy, it is equally so where the United States-Israel relationship is concerned. This essay seeks to present the realities of Jewish and pro-Israeli political activity in Washington, and to look at how they are being affected by evolving political and strategic arguments in the second term of the George W Bush presidency.

Norman Birnbaum is university professor emeritus at Georgetown University Law Center. He was one of the founding editors of New Left Review, was on the editorial board of Partisan Review, and is on the board of The Nation. He is active in the US Democratic party and has close ties to western Europe. Among his books is After Progress: American Social Reform And European Socialism In The Twentieth Century (Oxford University Press, 2001)



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