America and the 'Israel Lobby'

All Americans now have to view west Asia through pro-Israel contact-lenses, the mainstream media allow no other perspective. No one wishing to launch or continue a career in politics can hope to do so without obtaining a "pro-Israel" imprimatur of approval from an element of the "Lobby".

T wenty years ago an American journalist and film-maker, Edward Tivnan, researched the influence that Jewish political power exerted on the foreign policy of the US and published his findings in a book entitled The Lobby: Jewish Influence on American Foreign Policy. By the Lobby he meant specifically the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the officially recognised representative and executive bureau of American Zionists; and, beyond that, the ramified structure of organised Jewry in the US that tirelessly, implacably and successfully deploys the wealth and ubiquitous influence of the community to advance the interests of Israel, to confound and bring down Israels critics and deter those who would support Israels enemies and victims. Soon after the creation of Israel its founding father Ben Gurion declared the obligation of every Zionist organisation everywhere to help the Jewish state unconditionally and in all circumstances even if such a stance is in contradiction with the authorities of their respective nations, and AIPAC exists to police that obligation in the US (there are kindred bodies in other countries). Whoever criticises Israel policy can expect painful and incessant reprisals and even loss of his means of existence by the pressure of the Israel Lobby, an ex-congressman victim wrote in 1985: The president is afraid of it. Congress gives in to all its demands. The most prestigious universities see to it that in their programmes there is nothing which opposes it. The media giants and the military chiefs give in to its pressure and by the end of the century the media giants had become key parts of the Lobby.