H2 Note: In the few days since Rosenberg's article was written, a 6-month détente with Iran has been reached. Criticism of Obama has escalated to vicious dimensions. Much of it is justified, but one wonders if it would be in the forefront, now, were it not for Obama's effort to promote peace in the Middle East.

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Informationclearinghouse.info
By M J Rosenberg

AIPAC VS Obama
Israel Lobby Says Either Obama Backs Down on Iran Or Its War

What would have happened if President Kennedy had to deal with the equivalent of AIPAC in 1962, a powerful group of Americans (big donors to the Democratic party) who were determined to block any deal with the Soviets? Additionally this lobby would have owned hundreds of Members of Congress whose campaigns it had subsidized? This lobby would be warning Kennedy: don’t you dare cut a deal. Only war will end the Soviet threat? What would have happened then?

I don’t know. But there is a 50% chance we wouldn’t exist.
But that IS the Iran situation right now.

Robert Satloff, a top AIPAC staffer, warns President Obama today that he either abandon negotiations with Iran (and impose new sanctions) or its war. We will know this week if the lobby (using its owned Members of Congress like Sen. Menendez) can succeed in derailing negotiations and achieving war.

America and Israel are in uncharted waters. Just eight months since President Barack Obama visited Israel on the first foreign trip of his second term in an attempt to patch things up with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the two close allies are at odds once again—this time over a proposed “first step” nuclear agreement with Iran. Washington and Jerusalem eventually will find a way to move beyond this titanic clash, but no kiss-and-make-up effort can erase the scars that will be left behind.
The current crisis is already one of the biggest U.S.-Israel blowups, ever—and it could get worse before it gets better.
M.J. Rosenberg is Special Correspondent for The Washington Spectator. Previously he served as a Senior Foreign Policy Fellow with Media Matters Action Network, and prior to that worked on Capitol Hill for various Democratic members of the House and Senate for 15 years. He was also a Clinton political appointee at USAID. In the early 1980s, he was editor of AIPACs weekly newsletter Near East Report. From 1998-2009, he was director of policy at Israel Policy Forum. http://mjayrosenberg.com