- In his powerful 2006 book titled, "The Power of
Israel in the United States," James Petras explained the enormous
Jewish Lobby influence on US Middle East policies. Often harming American
interests, they're pursued anyway because of its grassroots and high-level
control over government, business leaders, academia, the clergy and mass
media since at least the 1960s.
-
- As a result, anyone challenging Israeli policy risks
being intimidated, blackmailed, smeared, pressured, removed from positions
of authority, or called a national security or terrorist threat, leaving
them vulnerable to unprincipled ostracization, persecution or worse.
-
- Among America's 52 Conference of Major American Jewish
Organization(s) (CPMAJO), the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is
the oldest, founded in 1897.
-
- Established by B'nai Brith in 1913, perhaps the Anti-Definition
League is best known.
-
- However, in terms of its influence over US Middle East
policies, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) stands out.
Calling itself "America's Pro-Israel Lobby," it's represented
Israeli interests since founded in 1953, then incorporated in 1963 as a
division of the American Zionist Council (AZC), its precursor.
-
- In 1962, Attorney General Robert Kennedy ordered AZC
to register as the foreign agent of the Jewish Agency for Israel (responsible
for Israeli immigration) under the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act
(FARA). In 1963, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee investigated AZC's
stealth Jewish Agency funding. Weeks later, AIPAC was incorporated, replaced
AZC, was later granted tax exempt status retroactive to 1953, refuses to
register as an foreign Israeli agent, and gets away with it.
-
- Today, masquerading as a domestic lobby, it's a stealth
foreign Israeli agent, supporting policies harming US interests. Calling
itself "America's leading pro-Israeli lobby," its web site says
it "works with both Democratic and Republican political leaders to
enact public policy that strengthens the vital US-Israel relationship."
-
- In fact, functioning as a virtual fifth column, it's
poisoned the body politic since exempted from operating lawfully. As a
result, as part of the destructive Israeli Lobby, it has virtual veto power
over war and peace, trade and investment, multi-billion dollar arms sales,
and all Middle East policies under Democrat and Republican administrations
alike.
-
- Ralph Nader calls Washington corporate occupied territory.
It's also Israeli Lobby-controlled, including AIPAC, assuring what Israel
wants, it gets, but not without independent voices denouncing its poisonous
influence.
-
- Included are Jewish organizations against Zionism, a
topic addressed in a previous article, accessed through the following link:
-
- http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2009/12/jews-against-zionism.html
-
- It discussed Zionism's hidden history, as well as opposition
groups, including:
-
- -- True Torah Jews Against Zionism;
-
- -- Not In My Name;
-
- -- Jewish Voice for Peace;
-
- -- Brit Tzedek V'Shalom;
-
- -- Tikkun;
-
- -- Satmar;
-
- -- Jews Against Racist Zionism; and
-
- -- Neturei Karta International.
-
- With like-minded organizations and individuals, they
oppose a racist, extremist, undemocratic, militant ideology, relying on
belligerence, occupation, repression and dispossession, contrary to core
Judaic dogma, principles and tradition. They believe it harms all Jews
worldwide, and that peace, reconciliation, and co-existence aren't possible
until it's repudiated and rejected.
-
- Confronting AIPAC
-
- The Anti-AIPAC Group's Facebook page calls itself:
-
- "against Zionist lobbying installed in the United
States, in particular linked to AIPAC....(an organization) constitut(ing)
a danger to peace in the world because it imposes its goals (ahead) of
the shared interest(s) of America...."
-
- Founded in 1951, the American Friends of the Middle East
remains an active anti-Israeli lobby.
-
- Founded in 1980, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee (ADC) calls itself the nation's largest Arab-American grassroots
civil rights organization. According to the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor,
a pro-Israeli front group, ADC is "very active (in) anti-Israeli political
causes."
-
- Founded in 1982, the Council for the National Interest
(CNI) "encourage(s) and promote(s) a US foreign policy in the Middle
East that is consistent with American values, protects our national interests,
and contributes to a just solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict."
CNI aims "to restore a political environment in America in which voters
and their elected officials are free from the undue influence and pressure
of foreign countries and their partisans."
-
- That position got CNI labeled an anti-Israeli lobby.
-
- An earlier article on the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
can be accessed through the following link:
-
- http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/10/anti-defamation-league-demagoguery-and.html
-
- It says "hundreds of groups....organize and participate
in various anti-Israeli activities," falsely claiming they spread
propaganda and don't promote peace.
-
- ADL's top 10 include:
-
- (1) Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER)
-
- Formed post-9/11, it's been activist against war, imperialism,
bigotry, and represents other issues, including civil and human rights,
and support for Palestinian equity and justice.
-
- (2) Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
-
- It's "committed to comprehensive public education
on the rights of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and
lands of origin, and to full restitution of all their confiscated and destroyed
property," according to international law.
-
- (3) Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
-
- In defending civil liberties, freedom of religion, diversity,
tolerance, and democratic freedoms, it combats hate groups vilifying Islam
and Muslims.
-
- (4) Friends of Sabeel-North America (FOSNA)
-
- It "promotes awareness and understanding" of
the Israeli/Palestinian conflict "through educational programs for
North American Christians....FOSNA seeks reconciliation between people
of the Holy Land in a vision of peace based on principles of a just peace,"
including "the urgency of ending US support for Israel's illegal military
occupation."
-
- (5) If Americans Knew (IAK)
-
- Its mission is "to inform and educate the American
public on issues of major significance that are unreported, underreported,
or misreported in the American media." It believes conflict resolution
and justice depends on revealing truths, ones major US media sources suppress,
supporting the worst of Israeli lawlessness.
-
- (6) International Solidarity Movement (ISM)
-
- A Palestinian-led initiative, it's committed to resisting
Israel's occupation, oppression, domination, and apartheid through nonviolent,
direct-action methods.
-
- (7) Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)
-
- It seeks equity, peace, security, and self-determination
for Israelis and Palestinians alike, through "grassroots organizing,
education, advocacy, and media." It's the only US Jewish organization
providing a voice for Jews and their allies, who believe that Middle East
peace is only possible "through justice and full equality" for
Jews and Muslims alike.
-
- (8) Muslim American Society (MAS)
-
- As a religious, charitable, social, cultural, and educational
group, its mission is to "move people to strive for God, consciousness,
liberty, and justice, and to convey Islam with utmost clarity."
-
- (9) Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)
-
- By "visualiz(ing) the Palestinian struggle,"
it opposes apartheid and occupation through protests, memorials, and other
ways, highlighting their plight against Israeli aggression and occupation.
-
- (10) US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (USCEIO)
-
- It's a "diverse coalition working for freedom from
occupation and equal rights for all by challenging US policy towards the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict." Based on human rights and international
law, it seeks peace, justice, and conciliation by "chang(ing) the
US role," the essential way to do it.
-
- Move Over AIPAC: Building a New US Middle East Policy
Conference
-
- Convening in Washington from May 21 - 24, coinciding
with AIPAC's annual meeting, it highlights a "time for a new foreign
policy," replacing AIPAC's-controlled one. Access its web site for
more information, including how to attend, through the following link:
-
- http://www.moveoveraipac.org/about-us/
-
- Over 50 peace and justice groups are participating sponsors,
"bring(ing together) activists and concerned citizens from around
the country to learn" about AIPAC's destructive influence on US Middle
East policy, and "how to strengthen an alternative that respects the
rights of all people in the region."
-
- Organizational Endorsers and Partners include:
-
- -- American Jews for a Just Peace;
-
- -- American Friends Service Committee: Pacific Mountain
Region;
-
- -- Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights;
-
- -- Build Bridges Not Walls;
-
- -- Citizens for Justice in the Middle East;
-
- -- Citizens for Palestinian Self-Determination;
-
- -- Coalition for Palestinian Rights;
-
- -- CODEPINK: Women for Peace;
-
- -- Global Exchange;
-
- -- If Americans Knew;
-
- -- Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions USA (ICHAD-USA);
-
- -- Middle East Children's Alliance;
-
- -- Rachael Corrie Foundation;
-
- -- Stop AIPAC;
-
- -- United for Peace and Justice; and
-
- -- dozens more.
-
- Speakers include, Helen Thomas, Ralph Nader, Ali Abunimah,
John Mearsheimer, Stephen Walt, Phyllis Bennis, former Senator James Abourezk,
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Laila El Haddad, Anna Baltzer, and many others.
-
- A Final Comment
-
- AIPAC is a malignancy in America, lobbying for:
-
- -- regional wars and occupation;
-
- -- Gaza's siege;
-
- -- Palestinian persecution, exploitation, disempowerment,
and isolation; denying them their fundamental guaranteed rights under international
law;
-
- -- Israeli's Apartheid Wall;
-
- -- dispossession and illegal settlements;
-
- -- neutralizing Israel's adversaries;
-
- -- subsidizing Israel lavishly with annual billions of
dollars and latest weapons and technology; and
-
- -- overall placing Israel's interests over America's,
a scandalous agenda nearly the entire Congress and every administration
endorse.
-
- Returning America's agenda to sanity starts with expunging
this corrupting influence, replacing it with a new moral ethic for peace,
reconciliation, co-existence, and equal respect for the rights of everyone
abroad and at home.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the
Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays
at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
|
