Two years ago the BBC World Discussion programme The Doha Debates held a special session at the Oxford Union on the question of whether or not the pro-Israel lobby has succesfully stifled the debate about Israel’s actions. Defending the motion are Norman Finkelstein and Andrew Cockburn. Opposing the motion are David Aaaaronovitch and Martin Indyk, former US Ambassador to Israel and research director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. It’s now up on Youtube.
UPDATE: so it seems I got this post up just in time for Ehud Olmert to claim he could order Bush around like a busboy:
WASHINGTON — In an unusually public rebuke, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel said Monday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had been forced to abstain from a United Nations resolution on Gaza that she helped draft, after Mr. Olmert placed a phone call to President Bush.
“I said, ‘Get me President Bush on the phone,’”Mr. Olmert said in a speech in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, according to The Associated Press. “They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia. I said I didn’t care: ‘I need to talk to him now,’ ” Mr. Olmert continued. “He got off the podium and spoke to me.”
Israel opposed the resolution, which called for a halt to the fighting in Gaza, because the government said it did not provide for Israel’s security. It passed 14 to 0, with the United States abstaining.
But remember: believing in the Israel lobby is anti-semitic…