- "It makes no sense at all to try to deny the
reality of Jewish power and prominence in popular culture." -- Michael Medved, well-known Jewish author and respected
film critic.
-
- For decades Israel has violated well established precepts
of international law and defied numerous United Nations resolutions in
its occupation of conquered lands, in extra-judicial killings, and in its
repeated acts of military aggression.
-
- Most of the world regards Israel's policies, and especially
its oppression of Palestinians, as outrageous and criminal. This international
consensus is reflected, for example, in numerous UN resolutions condemning
Israel, which have been approved with overwhelming majorities.
-
- "The whole world," United Nations Secretary
General Kofi Annan recently said, "is demanding that Israel withdraw
[from occupied Palestinian territories]. I don't think the whole world
... can be wrong." [note 1]
-
- Only in the United States do politicians and the media
still fervently support Israel and its policies. For decades the US has
provided Israel with crucial military, diplomatic and financial backing,
including more than $3 billion each year in aid.
-
- Why is the U.S. the only remaining bastion of support
for Israel?
-
- Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, who was awarded
the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, has candidly identified the reason: "The
Israeli government is placed on a pedestal [in the US], and to criticize
it is to be immediately dubbed anti-Semitic," he said. "People
are scared in this country, to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby
is powerful -- very powerful." [note 2]
-
- Bishop Tutu spoke the truth. Although Jews make up only
about three percent of the US population, they wield immense power and
influence -- vastly more than any other ethnic or religious group.
-
- As Jewish author and political science professor, Benjamin
Ginsberg, has pointed out: [note 3]
-
- "Since the 1960s, Jews have come to wield considerable
influence in American economic, cultural, intellectual and political life.
Jews played a central role in American finance during the 1980s, and they
were among the chief beneficiaries of that decade's corporate mergers and
reorganizations."
-
- Today, though barely two percent of the nation's population
is Jewish, close to half its billionaires are Jews. The chief executive
officers of the three major television networks and the four largest film
studios are Jews, as are the owners of the nation's largest newspaper chain
and the most influential single newspaper, the New York Times ... The role
and influence of Jews in American politics is equally marked.
-
- Jews are only two percent of the nation's population
yet comprise eleven percent of what this study defines as the nation's
elite. However, Jews constitute more than 25 percent of the elite journalists
and publishers, more than 17 percent of the leaders of important voluntary
and public interest organizations, and more than 15 percent of the top
ranking civil servants.
-
- Stephen Steinlight, former Director of National Affairs
of the American Jewish Committee, similarly notes the "disproportionate
political power" of Jews, which is "pound for pound the greatest
of any ethnic/cultural group in America." He goes on to explain that
"Jewish economic influence and power are disproportionately concentrated
in Hollywood, television, and in the news industry." [note 4]
-
- Two well-known Jewish writers, Seymour Lipset and Earl
Raab, pointed out in their 1995 book, Jews and the New American Scene:
[note 5]
-
- "During the last three decades Jews [in the United
States] have made up 50 percent of the top two hundred intellectuals ...
20 percent of professors at the leading universities ... 40 percent of
partners in the leading law firms in New York and Washington ... 59 percent
of the directors, writers, and producers of the 50 top-grossing motion
pictures from 1965 to 1982, and 58 percent of directors, writers, and producers
in two or more primetime television series."
-
- The influence of American Jewry in Washington, notes
the Israeli daily Jerusalem Post, is "far disproportionate to the
size of the community, Jewish leaders and U.S. official acknowledge. But
so is the amount of money they contribute to [election] campaigns."
One member of the influential Conference of Presidents of Major American
Jewish Organizations "estimated Jews alone had contributed 50 percent
of the funds for [President Bill] Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign."
[note 6]
-
- "It makes no sense at all to try to deny the reality
of Jewish power and prominence in popular culture," acknowledges Michael
Medved, a well-known Jewish author and film critic. "Any list of the
most influential production executives at each of the major movie studios
will produce a heavy majority of recognizably Jewish names." [note
7]
-
- One person who has carefully studied this subject is
Jonathan J. Goldberg, now editor of the influential Jewish community weekly
'Forward.' In his 1996 book, Jewish Power, he wrote: [note 8]
-
- "In a few key sectors of the media, notably among
Hollywood studio executives, Jews are so numerically dominant that calling
these businesses Jewish-controlled is little more than a statistical observation
... Hollywood at the end of the twentieth century is still an industry
with a pronounced ethnic tinge. Virtually all the senior executives at
the major studios are Jews. Writers, producers, and to a lesser degree
directors are disproportionately Jewish -- one recent study showed the
figure as high as 59 percent among top-grossing films."
-
- The combined weight of so many Jews in one of America's
most lucrative and important industries gives the Jews of Hollywood a great
deal of political power. They are a major source of money for Democratic
candidates.
-
- Reflecting their role in the American media, Jews are
routinely portrayed as high-minded, altruistic, trustworthy, compassionate,
and deserving of sympathy and support. While millions of Americans readily
accept such stereotyped imagery, not everyone is impressed.
-
- "I am very angry with some of the Jews," complained
actor Marlon Brando during a 1996 interview. "They know perfectly
well what their responsibilities are ... Hollywood is run by Jews. It's
owned by Jews, and they should have a greater sensitivity about the issue
of people who are suffering." [note 9]
-
- A Well-Entrenched Factor
-
- The intimidating power of the "Jewish lobby"
is not a new phenomenon, but has long been an important factor in American
life.
-
- In 1941 Charles Lindbergh spoke about the danger of Jewish
power in the media and government. The shy 39-year-old -- known around
the world for his epic 1927 New York to Paris flight, the first solo trans-Atlantic
crossing -- was addressing 7,000 people in Des Moines, Iowa, on September
11, 1941, about the dangers of US involvement in the war then raging in
Europe. The three most important groups pressing America into war, he explained,
were the British, the Jews, and the Roosevelt administration.
-
- Of the Jews, he said: "Their greatest danger to
this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion
pictures, our press, our radio, and our government." Lindbergh went
on:
-
- "For reasons which are understandable from their
viewpoint as they are inadvisable from ours, for reasons which are not
American, [they] wish to involve us in the war. We cannot blame them for
looking out for what they believe to be their own interests, but we must
also look out for ours. We cannot allow the natural passions and prejudices
of other peoples to lead our country to destruction."
-
- In 1978, Jewish American scholar Alfred M. Lilienthal
wrote in his detailed study, The Zionist Connection: [note 10]
-
- "How has the Zionist will been imposed on the American
people?... It is the Jewish connection, the tribal solidarity among themselves
and the amazing pull on non-Jews, that has molded this unprecedented power
... In the larger metropolitan areas, the Jewish-Zionist connection thoroughly
pervades affluent financial, commercial, social, entertainment, and art
circles."
-
- As a result of the Jewish grip on the media, wrote Lilienthal,
news coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict in American television,
newspapers and magazines is relentlessly sympathetic to Israel. This is
manifest, for example, in the misleading portrayal of Palestinian "terrorism."
As Lilienthal put it: "One-sided reportage on terrorism, in which
cause is never related to effect, was assured because the most effective
component of the Jewish connection is probably that of media control."
-
- One-Sided 'Holocaust' History
-
- The Jewish hold on cultural and academic life has had
a profound impact on how Americans look at the past. Nowhere is the well-entrenched
Judeocentric view of history more obvious than in the "Holocaust"
media campaign, which focuses on the fate of Jews in Europe during World
War II.
-
- Israeli Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer, a professor
at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has remarked: [note 11]
-
- "Whether presented authentically or inauthentically,
in accordance with the historical facts or in contradiction to them, with
empathy and understanding or as monumental kitsch, the Holocaust has become
a ruling symbol of our culture ... Hardly a month goes by without a new
TV production, a new film, a new drama, new books, prose or poetry, dealing
with the subject, and the flood is increasing rather than abating."
-
- Non-Jewish suffering simply does not merit comparable
attention. Overshadowed in the focus on Jewish victimization are, for example,
the tens of millions of victims of America's World War II ally, Stalinist
Russia, along with the tens of millions of victims of China's Maoist regime,
as well as the 12 to 14 million Germans, victims of the flight and expulsion
of 1944-1949, of whom some two million lost their lives.
-
- The well-financed Holocaust media and "educational"
campaign is crucially important to the interests of Israel. Paula Hyman,
a professor of modern Jewish history at Yale University, has observed:
"With regard to Israel, the Holocaust may be used to forestall political
criticism and suppress debate; it reinforces the sense of Jews as an eternally
beleaguered people who can rely for their defense only upon themselves.
The invocation of the suffering endured by the Jews under the Nazis often
takes the place of rational argument, and is expected to convince doubters
of the legitimacy of current Israeli government policy." [note 12]
-
- Norman Finkelstein, a Jewish scholar who has taught political
science at City University of New York (Hunter College), says in his book,
'The Holocaust Industry,' that "invoking The Holocaust" is "a
ploy to delegitimize all criticism of Jews."[note 13] "By conferring
total blamelessness on Jews, the Holocaust dogma immunizes Israel and American
Jewry from legitimate censure. ... Organized Jewry has exploited the Nazi
holocaust to deflect criticism of Israel's and its own morally indefensible
policies." He writes of the brazen "shakedown" of Germany,
Switzerland and other countries by Israel and organized Jewry "to
extort billions of dollars." "The Holocaust," Finkelstein
predicts, "may yet turn out to be the 'greatest robbery in the history
of mankind'."
-
- Jews in Israel feel free to act brutally against Arabs,
writes Israeli journalist Ari Shavit, "believing with absolute certitude
that now, with the White House, the Senate and much of the American media
in our hands, the lives of others do not count as much as our own."
[note 14]
-
- Admiral Thomas Moorer, former Chairman of the US Joint
Chiefs of Staff, has spoken with blunt exasperation about the Jewish-Israeli
hold on the United States: [note 15]
-
- "I've never seen a President -- I don't care who
he is -- stand up to them [the Israelis]. It just boggles the mind. They
always get what they want. The Israelis know what is going on all the time.
I got to the point where I wasn't writing anything down. If the American
people understood what a grip those people have got on our government,
they would rise up in arms. Our citizens certainly don't have any idea
what goes on."
-
- Today, the danger is greater than ever. Israel and Jewish
organizations, in collaboration with this country's pro-Zionist Christian
fundamentalist "amen corner," are prodding the United States
-- the world's foremost military and economic power -- into new wars against
Israel's enemies.
-
- As the French ambassador in London recently acknowledged,
Israel -- which he called (a quote which shocked millions -ed) "that
shitty little country" -- is a threat to world peace. "Why should
the world be in danger of World War III because of those people?,"
he said. [note 16]
-
- In summation:
-
- Jews wield immense power and influence in the United
States.
-
- The "Jewish lobby" is a decisive factor in
US support for Israel.
-
- Jewish-Zionist interests are not identical to American
interests. In fact, they often conflict.
-
- As long as the "very powerful" Jewish lobby
remains entrenched, there will be no end to the systematic Jewish-Zionist
distortion of current affairs and history, the Jewish-Zionist domination
of the U.S. political system, Zionist oppression of Palestinians, the bloody
conflict between Jews and non-Jews in the Middle East, and the Israeli
threat to peace.
-
- Notes
-
- 1. Quoted in Forward (New York City), April 19, 2002,
p. 11. 2. D. Tutu, "Apartheid in the Holy Land," The Guardian
(Britain), April 29, 2002. 3. Benjamin Ginsberg, The Fatal Embrace: Jews
and the State (University of Chicago, 1993), pp. 1, 103. 4. S. Steinlight,
"The Jewish Stake in America's Changing Demography: Reconsidering
a Misguided Immigration Policy," Center for Immigration Studies ,
Nov. 2001. http://www.cis.org/articles/2001/back1301.html 5. Seymour Martin
Lipset and Earl Raab, Jews and the New American Scene (Harvard Univ. Press,
1995), pp. 26-27. 6. Janine Zacharia, "The Unofficial Ambassadors
of the Jewish State," The Jerusalem Post (Israel), April 2, 2000.
Reprinted in "Other Voices," June 2000, p. OV-4, a supplement
to The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. 7. M. Medved, "Is
Hollywood Too Jewish?," Moment, Vol. 21, No. 4 (1996), p. 37. 8.
Jonathan Jeremy Goldberg, Jewish Power: Inside the American Jewish Establishment
(Addison-Wesley, 1996), pp. 280, 287-288. See also pp. 39-40, 290-291.
9. Interview with Larry King, CNN network, April 5, 1996. "Brando
Remarks," Los Angeles Times, April 8, 1996, p. F4 (OC). A short time
later, Brando was obliged to apologize for his remarks. 10. A. Lilienthal,
The Zionist Connection (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1978), pp. 206, 218, 219,
229. 11. From a 1992 lecture, published in: David Cesarani, ed., The Final
Solution: Origins and Implementation (London and New York: Routledge, 1994),
pp. 305, 306. 12. Paula E. Hyman, "New Debate on the Holocaust,"
The New York Times Magazine , Sept. 14, 1980, p. 79. 13. Norman G. Finkelstein,
The Holocaust Industry (London, New York: Verso, 2000), pp. 130, 138, 139,
149. 14. The New York Times, May 27, 1996. Shavit is identified as a columnist
for Ha'aretz, a Hebrew-language Israeli daily newspaper, "from which
this article is adapted." 15. Interview with Moorer, Aug. 24, 1983.
Quoted in: Paul Findley, They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions
Confront Israel's Lobby (Lawrence Hill, 1984 and 1985), p. 161. 16. D.
Davis, "French Envoy to UK: Israel Threatens World Peace," Jerusalem
Post, Dec. 20, 2001. The French ambassador is Daniel Bernard.6/02
-
-
- About the author
-
- Mark Weber is director of the Institute for Historical
Review. He studied history at the University of Illinois (Chicago), the
University of Munich, Portland State University and Indiana University
(M.A., 1977). For nine years he served as editor of the IHR's Journal of
Historical Review. www.ihr.org
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