Yah, I wrote him one more time in hopes of a non-combatitive clarification, and I got it...somewhat...here is what he wrote:
"I have been working on the Palestinian issue for more than 30 years, since my first trip there as a photographer in 1970, and my efforts to educate people about that issue and to stop US support for Israel's occupation has been frustrated over the years by my fellow folks on the left who refuse not only to recognize the role of the organized Jewish community (AKA the Israel lobby) in maintaining that support but their collective refusal to even investigate the issue, preferring Chomsky's dumb-downed version of history which would have us believe that US policy is determined by a handful of elites in Washington and that lobbies serve as nothing more than cheering sections. Right now, Dubya is showing that he learned the lesson that was taught to his daddy by the Israel lobby when he told Shamir back in 1991 that Israel couldn't have its 10 billion in loan guarantees unless he agreed to halt all settlement building and not settle Russian Jews in the settlements. Shamir refused and went over his head to Congress, first sending what Bush called "1000 Jewish lobbyists against little old me," in a press conference he held on 9/12/91. What followed was a bashing of Bush by his friends in the media who suddenly discovered the economy had holes, and his goose was cooked. When Dubya told Sharon that "enough is enough" and to get out of Jenin last year, immediately George Will wrote that he had lost his "moral clarity." Dubya gulped, backed off, described Sharon as a "man of peace," and handed the keys of the White House to the JINSA boys who told them they already had a set. That's it in brief. " (End)
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Bryan again:
However, the way that I heard the whole Bush Sr./ Shamir situation, the issue wasn't whether the money would go to the settlements or not...it did under Labour as much (or more) than Likud, the issue was that Shamir was openly stating his intent and flaunting it, which made Bush look bad on the international scene...Labour knows how to do things more quietly and therefore get away with it...
So Bush put up some huff and puff, Shamir pretended to cow-tow, and they both agreed to let the money flow once again to the settlements through the back door. Israel promises to only use the US money 'inside Israel' which then frees up the equal amount which then can be put into the settlements, and Bush can go around like he put his foot down for the international community (and the US domestic one to some degree, as if they cared)
Again, at least in my view, the issue is one of mutual goals between the Zionist lobby and the Administration, they feed off of each other.
However, Blankfort seems to be proposing that Bush sr. and now Bush Jr. were actually intending to truely reign in the Israelis and that the only reason they couldn't was due to the fact that the Zionist lobby tied their hands on the issue. Bush and Bush would actually be fighting for Palestinian and Arab rights if is wasn't for the Zionist lobby.
Perhaps I am naive, but this doesn't sound probable.
Bryan