NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006
Former US Senator Abourezk critiques Chomsky on Israel |
| By: James Abourezk 4 December 2006 [from a private correspondence that Mr. Abourezk has permitted to be distributed publicly] I had never paid much attention to Chomsky`s writings, as I had all along assumed that he was correct and proper in his position on the Arab-Israeli conflict. But now, upon learning that his first assumption is that Israel is simply doing what the imperial leaders in the U.S. wants them to do, I concur with you that this assumption is completely wrong. I can tell you from personal experience that, at least in the Congress, the support Israel has in that body is based completely on political fear--fear of defeat by anyone who does not do what Israel wants done. I can also tell you that very few members of Congress--at least when I served there--have any affection for Israel or for its Lobby. What they have is contempt, but it is silenced by fear of being found out exactly how they feel. I`ve heard too many cloakroom conversations in which members of the Senate will voice their bitter feelings about how they`re pushed around by the Lobby to think otherwise. In private one hears the dislike of Israel and the tactics of the Lobby, but not one of them is willing to risk the Lobby`s animosity by making their feelings public. Thus, I see no desire on the part of Members of Congress to further any U.S. imperial dreams by using Israel as their pit bull. The only exceptions to that rule are the feelings of Jewish members, whom, I believe, are sincere in their efforts to keep U.S. money flowing to Israel. But that minority does not a U.S. imperial policy make. Secondly, the Lobby is quite clear in its efforts to suppress any congressional dissent from the policy of complete support for Israel which might hurt annual appropriations. Even one voice is attacked, as I was, on grounds that if Congress is completely silent on the issue, the press will have no one to quote, which effectively silences the press as well. Any journalists or editors who step out of line are quickly brought under control by well organized economic pressure against the newspaper caught sinning. I once made a trip through the Middle East, taking with me a reporter friend who wrote for Knight-Ridder newspapers. He was writing honestly about what he saw with respect to the Palestinians and other countries bordering on Israel. The St. Paul Pioneer press executives received threats from several of their large advertisers that their advertising would be terminated if they continued publishing the journalist`s articles. It`s a lesson quickly learned by those who controlled the paper. With respect to the positions of several administrations on the question of Israel, there are two things that bring them into line: One is pressure from members of Congress who bring that pressure resulting in the demands of AIPAC, and the other is the desire on the part of the President and his advisers to keep their respective political parties from crumbling under that pressure. I do not recall a single instance where any administration saw the need for Israel`s military power to advance U.S. Imperial interests. In fact, as we saw in the Gulf War, Israel`s involvement was detrimental to what Bush, Sr. wanted to accomplish in that war. They had, as you might remember, to suppress any Israeli assistance so that the coalition would not be destroyed by their involvement. So far as the argument that we need to use Israel as a base for U.S. operations, I`m not aware of any U.S. bases there of any kind. The U.S. has enough military bases, and fleets, in the area to be able to handle any kind of military needs without using Israel. In fact I can`t think of an instance where the U.S. would want to involve Israel militarily for fear of upsetting the current allies the U.S. has, i.e., Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. The public in those countries would not allow the monarchies to continue their alliance with the U.S. should Israel become involved. I suppose one could argue that Bush`s encouragement of Israel in the Lebanon war this summer was the result of some imperial urge, but it was merely an extension of the U.S. policy of helping Israel because of the Lobby`s continual pressure. In fact, I heard not one voice of opposition to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon this summer (except Chuck Hagel). Lebanon always has been a `throw away` country so far as the congress is concerned, that is, what happens there has no effect on U.S. interests. There is no Lebanon Lobby. The same was true in 1982, when the Congress fell completely silent over the invasion that year. I think in the heart of hearts of both members of congress and of the administrations they would prefer not to have Israel fouling things up for U.S. foreign policy, which is to keep oil flowing to the Western world to prevent an economic depression. But what our policy makers do is to juggle the Lobby`s pressure on them to support Israel with keeping the oil countries from cutting off oil to the western nations. So far they`ve been able to do that. With the exception of King Feisal and his oil embargo, there hasn`t been a Saudi leader able to stand up to U.S. policy. So I believe that divestment, and especially cutting off U.S. aid to Israel would immediately result in Israel`s giving up the West Bank and leaving the Gaza to the Palestinians. Such pressure would work, I think, because the Israeli public would be able to determine what is causing their misery and would demand that an immediate peace agreement be made with the Palestinians. It would work because of the democracy there, unlike sanctions against a dictatorship where the public could do little about changing their leaders` minds. One need only look at the objectives of the Israeli Lobby to determine how to best change their minds. The Lobby`s principal objectives are to keep money flowing from the U.S. treasury to Israel, requiring a docile congress and a compliant administration. As Willie Sutton once said, `That`s where the money is.` Why Condemning Israel and the
Zionist Lobby is so James Petras “It’s no
great secret why the Jewish agencies continue to
trumpet support for the discredited policies of
this failed administration. They see
defense of Introduction:
Many Jewish writers, including those who are
somewhat critical of Israel, have raised pointed
questions about our critique of the Zionist power
configuration (ZPC) in the United States and what
they wrongly claim are our singular harsh
critique of the state of Israel. Some of
these accusers claim to see signs of ‘latent
anti-Semitism’, others, of a more
‘leftist’ coloration, deny the
influential role of the ZPC arguing that ZPC Deniers: Phony
Arguments for Fake Claims
The main claims of ZPC deniers take several
tacks: Some claim that the ZPC is just
‘another lobby’ like the Chamber of
Commerce, the Sierra Club or the Society for the
Protection of Goldfish. Others claim that
by focusing mainly on
These objections to treating the
Israeli-Palestinian
The response of the critics of
There are numerous similar lines of criticism,
which basically avoid the fundamental issues
raised by the Israeli state and the ZPC, and
which we are obliged to address. The reason
that criticism and action directed against Israel
and the ZPC is of central importance today in any
discussion of US foreign policy, especially (but
not exclusively) of Middle East policy and US
domestic policymaking is that they play a
decisive role and have a world-historic impact on
the present and future of world peace and social
justice. We turn now to examine the
‘big questions’ facing Americans as a
result of the power of The Big Questions
Raised by the ZPC and Israeli Power in the War or Peace: Critical study of the lead up to the US invasion of Iraq, US involvement in providing arms to Israel (cluster bombs, two-ton bunker buster bombs and satellite surveillance intelligence) prior to, during and after Israel’s abortive invasion of Lebanon, Washington’s backing of the starvation blockade of the Palestinian people and the White House and Congress’ demands for sanctions and war against Iran are directly linked to Israeli state policy and its Zionist policy-makers in the Executive branch and US Congress. One needs to look no further than the documents, testimony and reports of AIPAC and the Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations to observe their claims of success in authoring legislation, providing (falsified) intelligence, engaging in espionage (AIPAC) and turning documents over to Israeli intelligence (now dubbed ‘free speech’ by liberal Zionists). If, as the overwhelming
evidence indicates, the ZPC played a major role
in the major wars of our time, wars capable of
igniting new armed conflicts, then it ill
behooves us to dilute the role of the
Zionist/Jewish Lobby in promoting future US wars.
Given Democracy or AuthoritarianismWithout the bluster and public hearings of former Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Jewish Lobby has systematically undermined the principal pillars of our fragile democracy. While the US Congress, media, academics, retired military and public figures are free to criticize the President, any criticism of Israel, much less the Jewish Lobby, is met with vicious attacks in all the op-ed pages of major newspapers by an army of pro-Israeli ‘expert’ propagandists, demands for firings, purges and expulsions of the critics from their positions or denial of promotions or new appointments. In the face of any prominent critic calling into question the Lobby’s role in shaping US policy to suit Israel’s interests, the entire apparatus (from local Jewish federations, AIPAC, the Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations etc) go into action – smearing, insulting and stigmatizing the critics as ‘anti-Semites’. By denying free speech and public debate through campaigns of calumny and real and threatened repercussions the Jewish Lobby has denied Americans one of their more basic freedoms and constitutional rights. The massive, sustained and
well-financed hate campaigns directed at any
congressional candidate critical of The biggest threat to
democracy in its fullest sense of the word –
the right to debate, to elect, to legislate free
of coercion – is found in the organized
efforts of the Zionist lobby, to repress public
debate, control candidate selection and
campaigning, direct repressive legislation and
security agencies against electoral
constituencies opposing the Lobby’s agenda
for Israel. No other lobby or political
action group has as much sustained and direct
influence over the political process –
including the media, congressional debate and
voting, candidate selection and financing of
congressional allocation of foreign aid and Their Foreign Policy or Ours?
Intimately and directly related to the loss of
democratic freedoms and a direct consequence of
the Jewish lobby’s influence over the
political process is the making of US Middle East
policy and who benefits from it. The entire
political effort of the Lobby (its spending,
ethnic baiting, censorship and travel junkets) is
directed toward controlling US foreign policy
and, through US power, to influence the policy of
US allies, clients and adversaries in Europe,
Asia and the Middle East. The Lobby’s
systematic curtailment of our democratic freedoms
is intimately related to our own inability to
influence our nation’s foreign policy.
Our majoritarian position against the Iraq War,
the repudiation of the main executioner of the
War (the White House) and our horror in the face
of the Israeli invasion of No other organized political action group or public relations firm acting on behalf of the Cuban and Venezuelan exiles or Arab, African, Chinese or European Union states comes remotely near the influence of the Zionist lobby in shaping US policy to serve the interest of Israel.
While the Lobby speaks for less than 2% of
the
Never in the history of the Confronting the Lobby Matters
The question of the power of the Lobby over US
policies of war or peace, authoritarianism or
democracy and over who defines the interests
served by US foreign policy obviously go far
beyond the politics of the Middle East, the
Israeli-colonial land grabs in Palestine and even
the savage occupation of Iraq. The playing
out of Zionist influence over the greatest
military power in the world, with the most
far-reaching set of client states, military
bases, deadly weapons and decisive voice in
international bodies (IMF/World Bank/United
Nations Security Council) means that the Lobby
has a means to leverage its reach in most regions
of the world. This leverage power extends
over a range of issues, from defending the
fortunes of murderous Russian-Jewish gangster
oligarchs, to bludgeoning European allies of the
The ZPC represents a basic threat to our
existence as a sovereign state and our ability to
influence whom we elect and what agendas and
interests our representatives will pursue. Even
worse, by serving Israeli interests, we are
becoming complicit with a State whose Supreme
Court legalizes political assassinations across
national boundaries, torture, systematic
violations of international law and a regime
which repudiates United Nations resolutions and
unilaterally invades and bombs its neighbors and
practices military colonist expansionism. In
a word Because of these fundamental considerations, we cannot oblige our Jewish ‘progressive’ colleagues and compatriots and refrain from confronting the Zionist Lobby with force and urgency. Too many of our freedoms are at stake; too little time is left before they succeed in securing a greater military escalation; too little of our sovereignty remains in the face of the concerted effort by the Lobby and its Middle Eastern ‘expert-ideologues’ to push and shove us into a new and more devastating war with Iran at the behest of Israel’s pursuit of Middle East dominance.
No other country, abuser or not, of human rights,
with or without electoral systems, has the
influence over our domestic and foreign policy as
does the state of Democratic, just and peaceful responses to the Big Questions that face Americans, Europeans, Muslims, Jews and other peoples of the world passes through the defeat and dismantlement of the Israeli-directed Zionist Power Configuration in America. Nothing less will allow us to engage in an open debate on the alternatives to repression at home and imperialism abroad.
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