ReDiscover 9/11

Eli Clifton
www.lobelog.com
16 June 2010

Giles Scott Smith at The Holland Bureau has written an informative piece about the ties between Islamophobic Dutch politician Geert Wilders—the leader of the far-right Freedom Party (PVV)—and the American Israel lobby.

Smith explores the ties between Wilders and various U.S.-based neoconservatives and Islamophobes — with a particular emphasis on how Wilders draws on U.S. groups for funding.

Wilders made headlines with his party’s success in recent Dutch elections, where the PVV won 24 of 150 seats in parliament and earned a powerful position in coalition negotiations. The victory came despite Wilders’s continued prosecution for hate speech in the Dutch courts.

Stephen M. Walt
Foreign Policy
15 June 2010

It couldn’t be more predictable. Back when Israel and Turkey were strategic allies with extensive military-to-military ties, prominent neoconservatives were vocal defenders of the Turkish government and groups like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and AIPAC encouraged Congress not to pass resolutions that would have labeled what happened to the Armenians at the hands of the Turks during World War I a "genocide." (The "Armenian lobby" is no slouch, but it’s no match for AIPAC and its allies in the Israel lobby). The fact that the ADL was in effect protecting another country against the charge of genocide is more than a little ironic, but who ever said that political organizations had to be ethically consistent? Once relations between Israel and Turkey began to fray, however — fueled primarily by Turkish anger over Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians — the ADL and AIPAC withdrew their protection and Congressional defenders of Israel began switching sides, too.