Politik

"That Israel is a fellow democracy surrounded by hostile dictatorships cannot account for the current level of aid."

"Today Israel is the strongest military power in the Middle East. Its conventional forces are far superior to those of its neighbors and it is the only state in the region with nuclear weapons."

"Contrary to popular belief, the Zionists had larger, better equipped and better led forces during (list of wars from 1948-1967) - all of this before large-scale US aid began flowing."

"There is a strong moral case for supporting Israel's continued existence, but that is not in jeopardy."

"A final reason to question Israel's strategic value is that it does not behave like a loyal ally."

"As for the so-called rogue states in the Middle East, they are not a dire threat to vital US interests, except inasmuch as they are a threat to Israel."

"More important, saying that Israel and the US are united by a shared terrorist threat has the causal relationship backwards; the US has a terrorism problem because it is so closely aligned with Israel, not the other way around."

"In fact, Israel is a liability in the war on terror and the broader effort to deal with rogue states."

"The first Gulf War revealed the extent to which Israel was becoming a strategic burden."

"Backing Israel is not cheap, however, and it complicated America's relations with the Arab World."

"Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this campaign to eliminate criticism of Israel from college campuses is the effort by Jewish groups to push Congress to establish mechanisms that monitor what professors say about Israel." (this is a reference to the controversial HR 3077/HR 509 Bill in the U.S. Congress)"

"Not surprisingly, American Jewish leaders often consult with Israeli officials, so that the former can maximize their influence in the United States."

"The Lobby also has significant leverage over the Executive branch. That power derives in part from the influence Jewish voters have on presidential elections."

"The bottom line is that AIPAC, which is a de facto agent for a foreign government, has a stranglehold on the U.S. Congress.""

"Were it not for the Lobby’s ability to manipulate the American political system, the relationship between Israel and the United States would be far less intimate than it is today."

"The Lobby also monitors what professors write and teach. (this is a reference to Campus Watch)"

"The Lobby doesn’t want an open debate, of course, because that might lead Americans to question the level of support they provide."

"The core of the Lobby is comprised of American Jews who make a significant effort in their daily lives to bend U.S. foreign policy so that it advances Israel's interests."

"What is needed is a candid discussion of the Lobby's influence and a more open debate about US interests in this vital region. Israel's well-being is one of those interests, but its continued occupation of the West Bank and its broader regional agenda are not."

"Although neo-conservative and other Lobby leaders were eager to invade Iraq, the broader American Jewish Community was not.""

"There is nothing improper about American Jews and their Christian allies attempting to sway US policy; the Lobby's activities are not a conspiracy... For the most part the individuals and groups in it are only doing what other special interest groups do, but doing it very much better."

""Many of the ovkey organizations in the Lobby, such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organzations, are run by hardliners who generally support the Likud Party's expansionist policies, including its hostility to the Oslo Peace Process."

"Not all Jewish Americans are part of the Lobby, because Israel is not a salient issue for many of them."

"The Lobby also includes prominent Christian evangelicals like Gary Bauer, Jerry Falwell, Ralph Reed and Pat Robertson, as well as Dick Armey and Tom DeLay...all of whom believe Israel's rebirth is the fufillment of biblical prophecy and support its expansionist agenda; to do otherwise, they believe, would be contrary to God's will.""

"A Man who is Master of Patience, is Master of everything else."

"He was the chief of those politicians whom the two great parties contemptuously called Trimmers. Instead of quarrelling with this nickname, he assumed it as a title of honour, and vindicated, with great vivacity, the dignity of the appellation. Everything good, he said, trims between extremes. The temperate zone trims between the climate in which men are roasted and the climate in which they are frozen. The English Church trims between the Anabaptist madness and the Papist lethargy. The English constitution trims between Turkish despotism and Polish anarchy. Virtue is nothing but a just temper between propensities any one of which, if indulged to excess, becomes vice. Nay, the perfection of the Supreme Being himself consists in the exact equilibrium of attributes, none of which could preponderate without disturbing the whole moral and physical order of the world. Thus Halifax was a Trimmer on principle. He was also a Trimmer by the constitution both of his head and of his heart. His understanding was keen, sceptical, inexhaustibly fertile in distinctions and objections; his taste refined; his sense of the ludicrous exquisite; his temper placid and forgiving, but fastidious, and by no means prone either to malevolence or to enthusiastic admiration. Such a man could not long be constant to any band of political allies. He must not, however, be confounded with the vulgar crowd of renegades. For though, like them, he passed from side to side, his transition was always in the direction opposite to theirs. He had nothing in common with those who fly from extreme to extreme, and who regard the party which they have deserted with an animosity far exceeding that of consistent enemies. His place was on the debatable ground between the hostile divisions of the community, and he never wandered far beyond the frontier of either. The party to which he at any moment belonged was the party which, at that moment, he liked least, because it was the party of which at that moment he had the nearest view. He was therefore always severe upon his violent associates, and was always in friendly relations with his moderate opponents. Every faction in the day of its insolent and vindictive triumph incurred his censure; and every faction, when vanquished and persecuted, found in him a protector. To his lasting honour it must be mentioned that he attempted to save those victims whose fate has left the deepest stain both on the Whig and on the Tory name."

"Among the statesmen of those times Halifax was, in genius, the first. His intellect was fertile, subtle, and capacious. His polished, luminous, and animated eloquence, set off by the silver tones of his voice, was the delight of the House of Lords. His conversation overflowed with thought, fancy, and wit. His political tracts well deserve to be studied for their literary merit, and fully entitle him to a place among English classics. To the weight derived from talents so great and various he united all the influence which belongs to rank and ample possessions. Yet he was less successful in politics than many who enjoyed smaller advantages. Indeed, those intellectual peculiarities which make his writings valuable frequently impeded him in the contests of active life. For he always saw passing events, not in the point of view in which they commonly appear to one who bears a part in them, but in the point of view in which, after the lapse of many years, they appear to the philosophic historian. With such a turn of mind, he could not long continue to act cordially with any body of men. All the prejudices, all the exaggerations, of both the great parties in the state moved his scorn. He despised the mean arts and unreasonable clamours of demagogues. He despised still more the doctrines of divine right and passive obedience. He sneered impartially at the bigotry of the Churchman and at the bigotry of the Puritan. He was equally unable to comprehend how any man should object to Saints' days and surplices, and how any man should persecute any other man for objecting to them. In temper he was what, in our time, is called a Conservative: in theory he was a Republican. Even when his dread of anarchy and his disdain for vulgar delusions led him to side for a time with the defenders of arbitrary power, his intellect was always with Locke and Milton. Indeed, his jests upon hereditary monarchy were sometimes such as would have better become a member of the Calf's Head Club than a Privy Councillor of the Stuarts. In religion he was so far from being a zealot that he was called by the uncharitable an atheist: but this imputation he vehemently repelled; and in truth, though he sometimes gave scandal by the way in which he exerted his rare powers both of reasoning and of ridicule on serious subjects, he seems to have been by no means unsusceptible of religious impressions."

"Nothing would more contribute to make a Man wise, than to have always an Enemy in his view."

"MISPENDING a Man's time is a kind of self-homicide, it is making Life to be of no use."

"Nothing hath an uglier Look to us than Reason, when it is not of our side."

"If Men would think how often their own Words are thrown at their Heads, they would less often let them go out of their Mouths."

"A Man is to go about his own Business as if he had not a Friend in the World to help him in it."

"Men who borrow their Opinions can never repay their Debts. They are Beggars by Nature, and can therefore never get a Stock to grow rich upon."

"Modesty is oftner mistaken than any other Virtue."

"The condition of mankind is to be weary of what we do know, and afraid of what we do not."

"Folly is often more cruel in the consequence, than malice can be in the intent."

"Weak men are apt to be cruel."

"When by habit a man cometh to have a bargaining soul, its wings are cut, so that it can never soar. It bindeth reason an apprentice to gain, and instead of a director, maketh it a drudge."

"A Little Learning misleadeth, and a great deal often stupifieth the Understanding."

"Money hath too great a Preference given to it by States, as well as by particular Men."

"They who are of opinion that Money will do every thing, may very well be suspected to do every thing for Money."

"If Men considered how many Things there are that Riches cannot buy, they would not be so fond of them."

"It is not a reproach but a compliment to learning, to say, that great scholars are less fit for business; since the truth is, business is so much a lower thing than learning, that a man used to the last cannot easily bring his stomach down to the first."

"Men make it such a point of honour to be fit for business that they forget to examine whether business is fit for a man."

"The first mistake belonging to business is the going into it."

"The vanity of teaching often tempteth a Man to forget he is a Blockhead."

"Malice, like Lust, when it is at the Height, doth not know Shame."

"Malice is of a low Stature, but it hath very long Arms. It often reacheth into the next World, Death itself is not a Bar to it."

"Hope is generally a wrong Guide, though it is very good Company by the way. It brusheth through Hedge and Ditch till it cometh to a great Leap, and there it is apt to fall and break its Bones."

"Most men make little other use of their Speech than to give evidence against their own Understanding."