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Secretary of State Antony Blinken will address AIPAC Monday morning.

ABBA SOLOMON, abbasolomon@gmail.com
Solomon is author of the just released book The Miasma of Unity: Jews and Israel.

Solomon’s book, with an introduction by Israeli conductor and musician Jonathan Ofir, reviews historical and contemporary contradictions between Jewish faith and identity, and Jewish nationalism.

Solomon said today: “Secretary of State Blinken, after speaking to more ‘liberal Zionist’ J Street last year, will be reassuring the most effective Zionist lobbying organization, AIPAC, this year.

“It will be interesting to see if Secretary Blinken continues what U.S. anti-Semitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt has done, condemning rock legend Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, by intentionally misunderstanding a performance drawing on the 1979 album ‘The Wall’ — claiming there was anti-Semitic intent.” (See from Chip Gibbons: “Roger Waters’s Critics Are Smearing Him as Antisemitic Because They Hate His Pro-Palestine Activism.”)

Solomon continued: “‘Tensions’ between the Biden administration and Israel on expansionist Israeli projects in the occupied West Bank cannot override the United States prime directive of decades — support for Israel’s right to do anything it sees fit to ensure its ‘security.’ An attack on Iran is often threatened by Israeli cabinet members.

“Blinken will be speaking to AIPAC at a time when increasing numbers of American Jews, especially the younger generation, do not share AIPAC’s reflexive protectiveness of Israeli interests over Palestinian rights.”

Solomon’s past books include The Speech, and Its Context: Jacob Blaustein’s Speech “The Meaning of Palestine Partition to American Jews.” See his writings at MondoWeiss, including “Why Jewish organizations reflexively defend Israel — even when not asked.”

LEV GOLINKIN, golinkin@gmail.com
Ahead of last week’s visit to Ukraine by the U.S. Secretary of State, Golinkin wrote the piece “Secretary Blinken Faces a Big Test in Ukraine, Where Nazis and Their Sympathizers Are Glorified.”

After Blinken’s visit, Golinkin noted that Blinken “said nothing about the recent pro-Nazi SS march, or anything substantial about the Holocaust. When I asked the State Department for comment, they immediately pivoted to Russia. When I asked about Ukraine having an SS march — one that even Germany condemned — they immediately started attacking by invoking Russian disinformation. …”

Golkin noted in his recent article: “From the moment he was nominated for secretary of state, the media has made much over the Holocaust’s impact on Antony Blinken. Blinken’s stepfather was a famous survivor; his upbringing made the Holocaust an indelible part of Blinken’s identity. Indeed, last month Blinken lambasted America’s callousness during the genocide, going so far as denouncing a World War II-era State Department official for refusing to aid Jews fleeing Europe. …

“The reality is that glorification of Nazi collaborators and Holocaust perpetrators isn’t a glitch but a feature of today’s Ukraine.

“Shortly after the Maidan uprising of 2013 to ’14 brought in a new government, Ukraine began whitewashing Nazi collaborators on a statewide level. In 2015, Kyiv passed legislation declaring two WWII-era paramilitaries — the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) — heroes and freedom fighters and threatening legal action against anyone denying their status. The OUN was allied with the Nazis and participated in the Holocaust; the UPA murdered thousands of Jews and 70,000–100,000 Poles on their own accord.”

Earlier this year, Golinkin wrote the piece piece “How many monuments honor fascists, Nazis and murderers of Jews? You’ll be shocked,” in the Forward, launching the The Nazi Monument Project. He is the author of A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka, a memoir of Soviet Ukraine, which he left as a child refugee.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Tony Blinken is traveling to Ukraine with Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland.

KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL, kat@thenation.com, or via Ricky D’Ambrose, rdambrose@thenation.com, @KatrinaNation
Editorial Director and Publisher of The Nation magazine, Katrina vanden Heuvel recently wrote for the Washington Post: “The successful campaign to block Matthew Rojansky’s appointment is ominous for Biden’s Russia policy”: “When a new administration comes to Washington, the flowery rhetoric and springtime promises are often less revealing than who is put where to run the place. That’s why many of Washington’s most scurrilous campaigns are backstage fights over potential appointments. And that’s why the successful campaign to block the appointment of Matthew Rojansky as Russia director on the National Security Council is not only a sad reflection of the poisonous state of the debate on Russian policy today, but also an ominous sign for Biden’s foreign policy going forward. …

“Rojansky’s tempered realism is at odds with the strident consensus of the foreign policy establishment. The foreign policy ‘blob’ sees Russia as weak and paints Putin as the devil. They call Russia’s SolarWinds hack an ‘act of war,’ when intelligence experts describe it as ‘reconnaissance and espionage of the sort the U.S. itself excels at.’ They seem intent on extending the U.S. commitment to Ukraine, writing a check that the American people have no intention of backing. New sanctions on Russia are shortsighted and are likely to drive Moscow still further toward Beijing. The result is a self-reinforcing spiral of tensions and hostile postures strengthening hawks on both sides. For the Biden administration, Rojansky’s sensible perspectives would provide a necessary balance to voices such as Victoria Nuland, the hawkish new undersecretary of state for political affairs.

“Upon taking office, Biden promised a ‘foreign policy for the middle class,’ tacitly acknowledging that the debacles of the past decades have badly served all but the few. Keeping that promise requires profound rethinking. By reversing some of Donald Trump’s most egregious follies — returning to the Paris climate accord and the WHO, ending the Muslim ban, beginning negotiations to return to the Iran nuclear deal, extending the START nuclear accord with Russia — Biden has taken the first steps. Recalibrating our relations to Russia — and reducing the tensions around Ukraine and the Russian border — surely must be part of that effort. Getting that right will be much harder if sensible experts such as Rojansky have no place in the administration.”

Katrina vanden Heuvel is vice-president of the American Committee for U.S.-Russia Accord, a group interested in an informed dialogue about improving U.S.-Russia relations. The group recently participated in a talk organized by the Committee for the Republic (see background on the group) on the critical issues confronting U.S.-Russian relations, see video.

Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will be in Japan and South Korea, and then meet with Chinese officials in Alaska in the coming days.

JAMES BRADLEY, james@jamesbradley.com, Skype: JamesOnSound
Bradley is author of several bestsellers focused on U.S. policy in the Pacific and Asia, including Flags of Our Fathers and The China Mirage: The Hidden History of American Disaster in Asia.

He is currently in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand producing his “Untold Pacific” podcast about “the American experience in Asia.” Recent episodes include “China Rising,” “The #1 Focus of the U.S. National Security State is War with China” and “U.S. Military: ‘War with China Inevitable.'”

He said today: “Emperor Mao made dismembered China one. Emperor Deng made a poor China rich. Now Emperor Xi is determined to make a powerful China whole.

“The big issue between Beijing and Washington is Taiwan. Both sides have strong arguments, but start their observations at different points, sometimes different centuries.

“The business of China is business. The business of America is war. Will the U.S. make a business-like deal with China over Taiwan in Alaska? Or will the U.S. insist upon the Taiwan question being settled as a matter of war?”

President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, is scheduled to have his confirmation hearing today at 2:00 p.m. ET.

DAVID SWANSON, davidcnswanson@gmail.com, @davidcnswanson
Swanson is executive director of World Beyond War and campaign coordinator of RootsAction.org, which just sent out an email to their membership urging Senators to ask Binken serious questions: “Blinken should be asked about his role in helping start wars in Iraq, Syria, and Libya. Which of those wars does he now regret? What would he do to prevent similar catastrophes going forward?

“The trend of the past dozen years is away from ground wars in favor of air wars. This often means more killing, more injuring, and more making people homeless, but with an even higher percentage of all that suffering concentrated on the non-U.S. side. We need to know whether Blinken favors continuing this trend and how he claims to defend it morally and legally.

“Much of the U.S. public has been wanting an end to endless wars, and President-elect Biden has promised it. Blinken has suggested that endless wars shouldn’t really be ended. We need to know which of these wars, if any, he supports actually ending every U.S. role in: Yemen? Afghanistan? Syria? Iraq? Somalia?

   “Blinken co-founded WestExec Advisors, a company that helps war profiteers get contracts, and serves as a revolving door for unscrupulous individuals who get rich from private money for what they do and whom they get to know in their public jobs. WestExec has paid Blinken nearly $1.2 million for advising corporations, including seven that have recently lobbied the State Department, including Facebook, Boeing, and Blackstone.” See the full backgrounder.

See past accuracy.org news releases regarding Blinken.

Several media outlets are reporting that Joe Biden will announce Tuesday that Tony Blinken is his nominee for Secretary of State.

ZAREFAH BAROUD, zarefahbaroud@gmail.com, @ZarefahBaroud
Baroud is with American Muslims for Palestine. She recently wrote the piece “The Leahy Laws: Why Biden’s Promise to Israel is Illegal,” which states: “Biden and [Kamala] Harris are pledging to break U.S. law for Israel. … Essentially, the [Leahy laws state] that foreign military assistance must be suspended or discontinued if there exists credible information that the recipient foreign security force unit has committed a gross human rights violation. … According to Tony Blinken, Joe Biden’s senior advisor, ‘He [Biden] would not tie military assistance to Israel to any political decisions that it makes. Period. Full stop. He said it; he’s committed to it.'”

RICHARD SILVERSTEIN, richards1052@gmail.com, @richards1052
Silverstein at Tikun Olam just wrote the piece: “Biden Names Blinken Secretary of State, Israel Lobby Pleased,” which notes: “During the campaign, Blinken’s most notable comments were made in a conference call to pro-Israel leaders hosted by the Democratic Majority for Israel. DMI is a hawkish group which is the Democratic Party version of AIPAC. Though the latter claims it is bipartisan, it’s common knowledge that the vast majority of its membership, donors and leaders are Republican. Thus, DMI was manufactured to ensure that Democrats would not stray too far from the pro-Israel party line. The group has regularly acted as an enforcer within the party when candidates espouse positions considered anti-Israel.

“Among those who’ve been taken to the woodshed are Bernie Sanders, Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The group sunk over $1 million in ads in the Iowa primary attacking Bernie Sanders … the ads didn’t mention Sanders’ views on Israel.”

Bloomberg reports Tony Blinken will be Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of State.

SAM HUSSEINI, samhusseini@gmail.com, @samhusseini
Senior analyst with the Institute for Public Accuracy, Husseini said today: “During the runup to the invasion of Iraq, Biden — with Blinken’s critical help — oversaw hearings many criticized for effectively propagandizing on behalf of the planned invasion. In 2007, I questioned Biden about his record and he responded that he ‘did ask the necessary questions’ and cut off further questioning. Blinken then effectively ran interference and claimed that ‘every hard question was answered.’ Blinken also claimed without evidence: ‘He [presumably Biden] said there was no yellowcake. … He said there was no aluminum tubes.'” Earlier this year, Husseini wrote the piece “Joe Biden won’t tell the truth about his Iraq war record — and he hasn’t for years” for Salon. He is currently writing a piece about Blinken.

STEPHEN ZUNES, zunes@usfca.edu
Zunes is professor of politics at the University of San Francisco and wrote a piece on Biden’s Iraq record for The Progressive. He said today: “Tony Blinken served as Democratic Staff Director for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee under Chairman Biden during the critical months leading up to the invasion of Iraq. Under their leadership, the Committee limited hearings to only a day and a half and stacked the witness list with war supporters, refusing to call leading Mideast scholars and former UN inspectors who would have testified that Iraq had already disarmed and that an invasion would have disastrous consequences. This refusal to listen to experts or allow for the airing of diverse opinions, and the willingness to push for an illegal, unnecessary, and predictably disastrous war is not the kind of leadership we need at the Department of State.” Zunes was featured in the mini-doc “Worth the Price? Joe Biden and the Launch of the Iraq War.”

MARIAMNE EVERETT, [in France], mariamne.everett@mycit.ie, @EverettMariamne
Everett recently wrote the piece “Biden: A War Cabinet?” She is an intern at the Institute for Public Accuracy and radio presenter with World Radio Paris where she hosts the podcast “Hidden Paris.” Her piece includes quotes from Blinken, noting he has “had immense influence over Biden in his role as Deputy National Security Advisor, helping formulate Biden’s approach and support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Blinken seems to be of the view that it is up to the U.S., and only the U.S., to take charge of world affairs.”

U.S. President Joe Biden, his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are scheduled to hold an official joint summit at Camp David on Friday.

TIM SHORROCK, timshorrock@gmail.com, @TimothyS

Available for a limited number of interviews, Shorrock is a Washington-based investigative journalist who grew up in Japan and South Korea. He is the author of Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Outsourced Intelligence and is currently working on DMZ EMPIRE, his second book.

He recently wrote the piece “70 Years After the Armistice: The U.S. Introduces a New Trilateral Alliance with South Korea and Japan that Could Keep U.S. Troops in Asia Forever.”

See RootsAction article: “Rahm Emanuel Is Bragging About Turning Japan into a Warmaking Nation.”

Thursday morning, Shorrock put out a thread online which began:

“1. Washington has been encouraging Japanese rearmament and the merging of Japanese and Korean strategic interests since the first years of the U.S. military occupation of Southern Korea from 1945 to 1948.

“2. U.S. officials began seriously pressing for Japanese involvement in Korea during the Vietnam War, particularly after South Korea and Japan — under intense U.S. pressure — signed a 1965 treaty normalizing their ties for the first time since World War II.

“3. During the Obama administration, U.S. officials (like Blinken) tried to create an alliance with Tokyo and Seoul by encouraging the two countries to end their long-running dispute over Imperial Japan’s cruel exploitation of Korean sex slaves known as ‘comfort women.’

“4. But during the presidency of Moon Jae-in, a former dissident who championed engagement with North Korea over military confrontation, the idea was flatly rejected. Biden, during his campaign, called the Moon strategy of detente with the DPRK ‘appeasement.’ …

“6. Everything changed when Biden came to office in 2021 and Yoon, a right-wing militarist sympathetic to Japan, was elected to succeed Moon as president in 2022. Yoon let Japan off the hook. Both men embraced the idea of Japan playing a much greater role in military operations.” See full thread.

Shorrock will be participating in a webinar “Axis of War: The Japan-Korea-U.S. (JAKUS) Trilateral Alliance” on Friday at 7 p.m. ET. Other participants are historian Alexis Dudden, Cathi Choi of Women Cross DMZ and SimoneChun of the Korea Policy Institute.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Beijing. 

JAMES BRADLEY,  james@jamesbradley.com
    Bradley is author of several bestsellers focused on U.S. policy in the Pacific and Asia, including The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War. He is perhaps most well known for Flags of Our Fathers.

His book The China Mirage: The Hidden History of American Disaster in Asia (see NPR report on that book) tracks the rise of the “war lobby” that attempted to convince the U.S. public that the Chinese people wanted Chiang Kai-shek and that China could be Christianized during the FDR administration. “Of course, Mao Zedong would resoundingly defeat the forces of Chiang Kai-shek, but the war lobby would raise millions propagandizing the U.S. public and U.S. government helped fund the whole thing.

“Today, Asians want to do business; the U.S. government is ‘war, war, war.’ My daughter lives in Taipei and will be visiting. From her point of view, unification will mean the color of her passport would change. East Asians don’t want a Ukraine war here.

“Certainly, using a number of means, the U.S. government can coerce different governments to build more bases — the Philippines, Japan and so on. But there’s no public desire for this.

“The U.S. government strategy, articulated by Zbigniew Brzezinski and now pushed by Victoria Nuland, Antony Blinken and Jake Sulivan, is to break up Halford Mackinder’s big island. They will use whatever means they can to prevent strong bonds throughout Asia.”

Seymour Hersh recently wrote: “Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman has resigned, and her last day in office is June 30. Her departure has triggered near panic inside the State Department about the person many there fear will be chosen to replace her: Victoria Nuland. Nuland’s hawkishness on Russia and antipathy for Vladimir Putin fits perfectly with the views of President Biden. Nuland is now the undersecretary for political affairs and has been described as ‘running amok,’ in the words of a person with direct knowledge of the situation, among the various bureaus of the State Department while Secretary of State Antony Blinken is on the road.”

See from January, 2021: “Biden Nominating Victoria ‘F*ck the EU’ Nuland.”

As the Biden administration rebuilds ties with Saudi Arabia, Vermonters rallied outside a recent “town hall” event with Bernie Sanders, calling on him to meet with them on the U.S./Saudi role in the devastating Yemen war, and to follow through on his pledge on the Senate floor from December. Video shows Isaac Evans-Frantz confronting Bernie, surrounded by Vermonters carrying signs.

SACC EVANS-FRANTZ, isaac@actioncorps.org, @theactioncorps
Evans-Frantz is with Action Corps, an organization with people in 30 states who campaign for U.S. policies to save lives around the world.

He said today: “When Bernie withdrew his Yemen War Powers Resolution December 13 on the Senate floor, he promised he’d be back for a vote if needed. ‘I look forward to working with the administration who is opposed to this resolution,’ Sanders said, ‘And see if we can come up with something that is strong and effective. If we do not, I will be back.’

“Bernie’s apparent silence — as the historic leader on the Yemen War Powers Resolution in the Senate — is providing cover for other members of Congress to fail to act.

“Because U.S. military participation in the Saudi war in Yemen has not ended, because Bernie has not yet kept his promise to act, because Bernie has not yet met with us, and because there was no option for asking questions or making comments during Bernie’s ‘town hall,’ Vermonters who care about Yemen gathered outside Bernie’s ‘town hall’ in Stowe with signs demanding that Bernie meet with us and that he stay strong and reintroduce the Yemen War Powers Resolution in the Senate. Vermonters will have his back when he does this – but he needs to start by meeting with the people who he represents.”

See recent teach-in on Yemen.