In the last days of Unclaimed Territory, you accused AIPAC and other "Jewish donor groups" of "agitating for a U.S. war against Iran." When I asked you for specific examples of such agitation, you refused to provide any. Your latest post links to a news article stating that AIPAC is expected to lobby Congress to impose economic sanctions against Iran. Is this what you meant by "agitating for a U.S. war"?

I explained to you exactly what I meant by that when you asked in a lengthy comment (I believe I responded twice). Others did as well. The purported summary you just provided of what I said is many universes away from what I exactly said, which demonstrates to me that you are not interested in a discussion of this issue, only in proving your point -- which is that it is unthinkable that right-wing Jewish groups like AIPAC would be pushing the U.S. to war with Iran.

Even those who admit that they would like a war with Iran couch their claims right now in a purported desire to use sanctions and diplomacy first -- gee, when did we hear that before? I guess we are all obligated to sit by and indulge the same false and misleading tactics from the same corners that drove us to war with Iraq as they seek to do the same with Iran.

You may think that because AIPAC has not yet come out and said "we favor a U.S. war with Iran right now" that this means there is no evidence that they are pushing the country to war with Iran. I already explained why that is a ludicrous standard, and since you failed even to recognize what I said (let alone agree with it), I highly doubt that explaining it again will help matters any.

There are people on all sides of this issue who, for various reasons, approach it with high levels of emotion and personal investment and they end up making all sorts of accusations about other people as a result. That is why so many people avoid dicussing this issue at all.

Go ahead and repeat as many times as you want that I "refused" to provide evidence for my claims. Saying it over and over doesn't make it true. The only way to deny that right-wing Jewish groups in this country are working consistently with the goal of right-wing Israeli politicians to make Iran the problem of the U.S. is to shut your eyes as tightly as possible to reality and set standards of "evidence" so high that - by design - they could never be met.

Sorry, but I'm not going to refrain from pointing out what I think is the greatest danger to our country -- the efforts by certain factions to push the country to war with Iran -- because they have figured out how to not-so-cleverly disguise their agenda and have decided to take an incremental approach to their goal.

See how many people you can convince that AIPAC would be very upset and terribly opposed to a U.S. attack on Iran. That's what AIPAC's history really reflects -- strong opposition to U.S. foreign policy taking a hostile posture to Israel's gravest enemies. That's very persuasive.

From Matt Yglesias´ article, linked in the post -

The context, I would say, is worrisome. "Israel" is not a unitary actor, but clearly some Israelis are pushing for war with Iran. More to the point, many American Jewish organizations are pushing for war with Iran. And before Foxman comes to lock me up, he might want to check out his own outfit's website, complete with a section on "The Iranian Threat." Meanwhile, over on AIPAC's site we can learn about the "escalating threat" from Iran. A group called The Israel Project has an Iran Press Kit page, linking only to alarmist takes on the Iranian nuclear issue and to a hawks-only set of expert sources. (Shockingly, none of these organizations are especially concerned that Israel won't join the Non-Proliferation Treaty Framework.)

For another example, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs gave Senator John McCain its "Scoop" Jackson Award in December; in his remarks accepting the award, McCain argued that "[t]he path to future success for Israel will not be an easy one, and there will be a number of difficult issues. Foremost on many minds, is, of course, Iran." He characterized "Tehran’s continued pursuit of nuclear weapons" as "an unacceptable risk" -- language clearly designed to lay the groundwork for war.

With this last bit, we not only see the accuracy of Clark's remark, but, once again, the stunning hypocrisy of the anti-anti-Semitism brigades. It's clear that McCain, just like Clark, sees American Jewish organizations as key players in the Iran-hawk movement in the United States, and also that he sees concern for Israeli security as motivating those groups. Nobody, however, is going to label McCain a Jew-hating conspiracy theorist -- because, of course, McCain wants to help these groups push the United States into a military confrontation with Iran. Thus, McCain gets an award, and Clark gets called an anti-Semite.

But Yglesias also no "evidence" for his concerns. Why? Because Gator has decided that "evidence" (when it comes to this issue means) "direct, conclusive evidence which, standing alone, proves the proposition with 100% certainty." Therefore, as long as AIPAC never comes out and publicly says: "We, as an organization, have formally and expressly adopted as our position that the U.S. Government should commence war against Iran," nobody is permitted to say -- no matter how much circumstantial evidence there is, including past behavior -- that "AIPAC is pushing the country to war" becuase there would be "no evidence" for that.

That's a nice little game you're trying to play. Unfortunately (for you, but fortunately for the country), this time, very few people are going to accept your rules.