Middle East Online 21 Agosto 2008

Book argues that understanding impact of Israel Lobby on US policy is essential for Mideast peace
 
WASHINGTON - Criticizing and exposing the powerful public role of American Zionism in shaping US policy in the Middle East is the biggest taboo in US politics. Politicians, academics, journalists, prelates and ordinary American citizens who publicly voice their dissent are targeted for political purges, denied academic tenure, and access to the mass media and scurrilously labeled as ‘anti-Semites’ by the Zionist power configuration.

The book Zionism, Militarism, and the Decline of US Power by James Petras challenges the claims of Zionist apologists who argue that the ‘Israel power configuration’ is just another lobby, by empirically examining several major policies. The case studies demonstrate conclusively that today issues of war and peace, trade and investment agreements by US, European and Asian oil companies and banks in the Middle East, multi-billion dollar arms sales to Saudi Arabia are all subject to ZPC scrutiny and veto.

The new ‘broad definition’ of what affects Israel includes Lobby backing for Bush’s shredding of Constitutional restraints on his war powers. It is not merely regional expansion which ‘interests Israel’ but economic and military aid and sales—namely who determines what military goods the US can sell to Arab states as well as what high end military technology the US should provide to the world’s fourth biggest arms merchant—Israel (which is also the US’s arms export competitor).the Zionist power configuration (ZPC) in the US Congress has blocked trade and sales to Saudi Arabia, despite the backing of the US oil and military-industrial sectors. Thanks to its influence in the mass media, the ZPC effectively delayed, degraded and then marginalized a long-awaited report by16 US national intelligence agencies on Iran’s non-military nuclear program in favor of dubious bellicose claims issued by the state of Israel.

Only Zion-Con demands and Israeli interests can explain the current US moves against Iran---threats, infiltrations, naval blockades, US Treasury-imposed sanctions on the entire Iranian financial sector including threats to global finance for any linkages---policies which are contrary to the interests of Big Oil, US corporations, and the weakened US military.

Petras empirically demonstrates that while the interests of the US do not in fact coincide with those of Israel, the effective power of the pro-Zionist Lobby gives Israel the capacity to replace the US agenda with its own.

At a time when our national economy is in deep crisis, the Israel Lobby is pushing for a new military confrontation and war with Iran, oblivious to its catastrophic consequences for the American people. Major pro-Israel officials and politicians in Homeland Security, the National Security Council, the Congress and the White House are passing more police-state legislation to control and silence the growing majority opposition to the expansion of wars in the Middle East promoted by the Israel Lobby.

This book establishes the reasons why coming to grips with the impact of Israel and the Israel Lobby on US policy is so essential to bringing peace to the Middle East, restoring public freedoms in our country and taking back our right to decide not only US foreign policy, but our domestic policy as well, in the interests of the vast majority of the American people.

James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. He is the author of 63 books published in 29 languages, and over 560 articles in professional journals.

Source > Middle East Online