The Israeli-Zionist Lobby in the United States
By Roger Garaudy
[Excerpt from the book "The
Founding Myths of Israeli Politics"]
"The Israeli Prime Minister has a lot more influence over the
foreign policy of the United States in the Middle East than he has
in his own country."
Source: Paul Findley, "They Dare to Speak Out", p. 92
How were such myths able to lead to such deep-rooted beliefs in
millions of sincere people?
- By the creation of all-powerful "lobbies" capable of influencing
the action of politicians and of conditioning public opinion.
The modes of action are adapted to the country. In the United States,
where 6 million Jews live, the "Jewish vote" can be an important
factor in determining the electoral majority where (because of the
high number of abstentions and the absence of major policy
differences between the two parties) victory can often be had with a
margin of 3% or 4%.
"What's more, the volatility of public opinion, which depends to a
large extent on the "look" of the candidate or on his performance on
television, depends on the budget of his committees and of the
potential of his marketing policy.'In 1988 the American Senate
elections required an advertising budget of 500 million
dollars.'"
Source: Alain COTTA, "Capitalism in all its States," Ed. FAYARD
1991. p. 158
The most powerful officially listed lobby on the Capitol is the
A.I.P.A.C. ("American Israel Public Affairs Committee")
The strength of the Israelis in the U.S. as early as 1942, is such
that at the Biltmore Hotel in New York a maximalist convention
decides that it is necessary to move from the "Jewish homeland in
Palestine" (promised by Balfour : a slow colonization by buying
land under British or American protection) to the creation of a
"sovereign Jewish state".
The duplicity which characterizes the whole history of political
zionism is expressed in the "interpretations" of what was to be the
outcome of Herzl's efforts : "The Balfour Declaration" (in 1917). The
formula of a "national Jewish homeland" is taken up again at the
Congress of Basle. Lord Rothschild had prepared a declaration
advocating "the national principle of the Jewish people". Balfour's
final declaration does not talk any more about all Palestine, but
only about the "establishment in Palestine of a national homeland for
the Jewish people". In actual fact everybody says "homeland" (as if
it were a spiritual and cultural center), and, in reality, thinks
"State", as did Herzl himself. Lloyd George wrote in his book :
"The Truth About the Peace Treaties", (Ed. Gollancz 1938, vol.
2, pp. 1138 39) : "There could be no doubt about what the members
of the cabinet had in mind at the time... Palestine would become an
independent state." It is significant that General Smuts, a
member of the War Cabinet, declared in Johannesburg on 3 November
1915 : "Over the coming generations, you will see the emergence
over there (in Palestine) once again, of a great Jewish
state."
On 26 January 1919 Lord Curzon wrote : "While Weizman is telling
you one thing, and you are thinking "Jewish national homeland", he
has something completely different in mind. He is envisaging a Jewish
state and a subjugated Arab population governed by Jews. He is trying
to realize this behind the protective screen of the British
guarantee."
Weizman had clearly explained to the British government that the
objective of zionism was to create a "Jewish state" (with 4 or 5
million Jews). Lloyd George and Balfour gave him the
assurance"that by using the term "national homeland" in the
Balfour Declaration, we did indeed mean a Jewish state."
On 14 May 1948 Ben Gurion proclaims independence at Tel Aviv :
" The Jewish state in Palestine will be called
Israel".
Despite the divergence between those who, like Ben Gurion, considered
it a duty for every Jew in the world to come and live in Israel, and
those who thought that the action of the Jews in America was more
important, in the very interest of Israel, it was the latter tendency
which was to be more powerful : out of the 35,000 Americans or
Canadians who immigrated into Israel, only 5,400 stayed there.
Source: Melvin I. Wofsky : "We are one! American Jewry and
Israel", New York, 1978 Pub. Ander Press - Doubleday pp. 265 -
266
The State of Israel was admitted to the United Nations thanks to
brazen pressure from the lobby.
Eisenhower didn't want to alienate the oil producing Arab countries
:"A prodigious source of strategic power and one of the greatest
sources of wealth in the history of the world", he said.
Source: Bick, "Ethnic Linkage and Foreign Policy", p. 81
Truman swept aside his scruples for electoral reasons and it was
to be the same with his successors. On the subject of the power of
the Zionist lobby and of the "Jewish vote", President Truman himself
had declared in 1946, to a group of diplomats : "I am sorry
gentlemen, but I have to answer to hundreds of thousands of people
who are expecting the success of Zionism. I don't have thousands of
Arabs among my electors."
Source: William Eddy, F.P. Roosevelt and Ibn Saoud, N.Y. "American
Friends of the Middle East", 1954 p. 31 (or 39)
The former British Prime Minister Clement Atlee gives this
testimony: " U.S. policy in Palestine was shaped by the Jewish
vote and by the subsidies of several large Jewish companies."
Source: Clement Atlee, "A Prime Minister Remembers", Pub.
Heinemann, London 1961, p. 181.
Eisenhower had, in agreement with the Russians, stopped the
Israeli aggression (supported by the British and French leaders)
against the Suez Canal in 1956.
Senator J.F. Kennedy had, in this matter, shown no enthusiasm.
In 1958 the "Conference of Presidents" of the Jewish
associations charges its president, Klutznik, with contacting
Kennedy, a possible candidate. He declared to him plainly,"If you
say what you have to say, you can count on me. If not, I will not be
the only one to turn his back on you."
Source: Melvin I. Wofsky, "We Are One", p. 265 - 266
Klutznik summed up for him what he had to say : The attitude of
Eisenhower in the Suez affair was wrong but in '48 Truman was on the
right track. Kennedy followed this "advice" in 1960 when he was
designated as candidate by the democratic convention. After his
declarations in front of Jewish V.I.P.'s in New York he got 500,000
dollars for his campaign, Klutz as adviser and 80% of the Jewish
vote.
Source: Ibidem, p. 271 to 280
During his first meeting with Ben Gurion in the New York Astoria
Waldorf Hotel in spring 1961, John F. Kennedy said to him: "I know
that I have been elected thanks to the votes of American Jews. I owe
my election to them. Tell me what I have to do for the Jewish
people."
Source: Edward Tivnan, "The Lobby", p. 56 (quoting the biographer
of Ben Gurion, Michel Bar Zohar)
After Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson went even farther. An Israeli
diplomat wrote : "We lost a good friend. But we have found an even
better one... Johnson is the best friend the Jewish State has ever
had in the White House."
Source: I. L. Kenen, "Israel's Defense Line", Prometheus Book,
1981. pp. 66 - 67
Johnson did indeed give strong support during the "six day war"
of 1967. From then on, 99% of American Jews would support Israeli
zionism. "To be a Jew today means to be tied to Israel."
Source: Schlomo Avineri : "The Making of Modern Zionism", N.Y.,
Basis Book, 1981, p. 219
U.N. resolution 242 of November 1967 demanded the evacuation of
the territories occupied during the war and De Gaulle, after this
aggression, declared an embargo on arms destined for Israel. The
American congress followed. But Johnson lifted it in December and,
under pressure from the A.I.P.A.C., delivered the Phantom planes
ordered by Israel.
Source: Bick, p. 65 and 66 or 166
As a consequence of this Israel didn't criticize the war in
Vietnam.
Source: Abba Eban, autobiography. D. 460
When Golda Meir came to the U.S. in 1979, Nixon compared her to
"biblical Deborah" and smothered her in praise for Israel's economic
boom.
Source: Steven L.S. Spiegel: "The Other Arab-Israeli Conflict",
University of Chicago Press, 1985, p. 185
The "Rogers Plan", taking up again the essence of U.N. Resolution
242, was rejected by Golda Meir.
Source: Kenen, p. 239
Nixon delivered 45 Phantoms and more than 80 Skylark bombers to
Israel.
Nasser died on 8 September 1970 and Sadat proposed peace with Israel.
Moshe Dayan, Minister of Defense, refused, in spite of the views of
the Minister for Foreign Affairs Abba Eban.
So on 6 October 1973 Sadat launched the offensive which was to be
known as the Yom Kippur War and destroyed the reputation of both
Golda Meir, who had to resign on 10 April 1974, and Moshe Dayan.
Nevertheless, the Jewish lobby on the Capitol won a great success for
the accelerated rearmament of Israel: 2 billion dollars, on the
pretext of fighting a competing Arab lobby.
Source: Neff, "Warriors of Jerusalem" (p. 217)
Money from the Jewish banks of Wall Street was added to the
governmental aid.
Source: Bick, p. 65 and Abba Eban, p. 460.
Of the 21 people who contributed more than 100,000 dollars to
Senator Hubert Humphrey, 15 were Jews, at their forefront the bosses
of the "Hollywood Jewish mafia" like Wasserman. Overall, they
contributed more than 30% of the Democrats' election fund.
Source: Stephen D. Isaacs, "Jews and American Politics" (N.Y. pub.
Doubleday, 1974, chapter 8)
The A.I.P.A.C. mobilized again and got in three weeks, for 21 May
1975, the signatures of 76 senators asking President Ford to support
Israel, as they did.
Source: Full text in Shechan, "Arabs, Israelis and Kissinger",
Reader's Digest Press (p. 175)
Jimmy Carter's path was marked out for him: at the Synagogue of
Elizabeth in New Jersey, dressed in the blue velvet toga, he
proclaimed:
"I honor the same God as you. We (The Baptists) study the same
Bible as you." And he concluded,"The survival of Israel does
not come down to politics. It is a moral duty."
Source: "Time", 21 June, 1976
This was the period when Begin and the religious parties had
taken power from the Labor Party in Israel:"Begin considered himself
more as a Jew than as an Israeli", wrote his biographer.
Source: Silver, "Begin: The Haunted Prophet", p. 164
In November 1976 Nahum Goldmann, President of the World Jewish
Congress, came to Washington to see the President, Vance and
Brzezinski and gave the Carter administration this unexpected advice:
"smash the Zionist lobby in the United States".
Source: "Stern", New York, 24 April 1978
Goldmann had dedicated his life to zionism and played a key role
in the "lobby" since the time of Truman and he said now that his own
creation, The Presidents' Conference, was a "destructive force" and a
"major obstacle" to Peace in the Middle East.
Begin was in power and Goldmann was determined to undermine his
policy, even if this meant destroying his own pressure group.
Six years later Cyrus Vance, one of the interlocutors at this
meeting, confirmed Goldmann's proposals:"Goldmann suggested to us
to smash the lobby but The President and The Secretary of State
replied that they didn't have the power and that, besides, this could
open the way to anti semitism."
Source: Interview with Cyrus Vance by Edward Tivnan, "The Lobby",
pub. Simon and Schuster, 1987, p. 123
Begin, sharing power with Labor, appointed Moshe Dayan as
Minister for Foreign Affairs in place of Shimon Peres. The President
of the Jewish Presidents' Conference in the U.S Schindler, had this
turn in favor of the extremists accepted, stressing the pragmatism of
Dayan. Begin, for a while, hardly had to worry about the American
zionists whom he considered to be Labour's supporters.
But American businessmen, noticing the influence of the rabbis on
Begin and especially the latter's attachment to "free enterprise"
(contrary to the state intervention of Labour), welcomed the Camp
David Agreement (September 1978). Sadat, making a separate peace with
Israel, did not get to touch. The West Bank (Judea and Sumeria,
"biblical" lands according to Begin) and only kept Sinai which, for
Begin, was not "biblical land".
Source: Stephen D. Isaacs: "Jews and American Policy", Doubleday.
1974 D. 122
In 1976 Carter got 68% of the Jewish vote; in 1980 he only got
45% of it having, in the meantime, sold F15 planes to Egypt and
"AWACS" planes to Saudi Arabia, ensuring, however, that these would
never be used against Israel as the American Army controlled all the
system's data from the ground.
In 1980 he was, however, beaten by Reagan who, on the contrary,
extended 600 million dollars of military credit for the following 2
years.
Begin, reassured after Camp David of not being attacked from behind
by the Egyptians and also by the fact that the AWACS sold to Saudi
Arabia were entirely under American control, was able to show the
Americans his capacity for a preventive war (like the Japanese at
Pearl Harbor and the Israelis with the Egyptian aviation during the
Six Day War) by proceeding to destroy, without a declaration of war,
the Iraqi power station of Ozirak which had been built by the French.
Begin always invoked the same sacred myth:
"There will never again be another Holocaust."
Source: "The Washington Post", 10 June 1981
Encouraged by the weakness of the American protesters who feared
an escalation in the Middle East situation, Begin, one month later,
on 17 July 1981, bombarded West Beirut to destroy, he said, P.L.O.
bases.
Reagan then announced the project to sell 8 billion dollars worth of
AWACS along with missiles to Saudi Arabia, still under conditions
that in no way threatened Israel as American control was total.
To such an extent that a Senate majority accepted this good economic
deal and reinforcement of American control in The Gulf. (The Saudis
had to bind themselves to overfly neither Syria nor Jordan, and
therefore not Israel.)
Source: Facts and Files, 20 September 1981, p. 705
Begin, still possessed by the vision of "Greater Israel" of
biblical legend, continued with the establishment of Israeli colonies
in The West Bank (begun by Labour) which Carter had declared
"illegal" and which were in breach of U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338.
But Reagan saw in Israel a way of blocking Soviet designs on the oil
of The Gulf. In November 1981 Ariel Sharon, Begin's Minister of War,
met his American opposite number Casper Weinberger and drew up with
him a "strategic cooperation" plan to dissuade any Soviet threat in
the region.
Source: "N.Y. Times", 1 December 1981
On 14 December Begin annexes The Golan. Reagan protests against
this new violation of Resolution 242. Begin flares up: "Are we a
banana republic? A vassal state of yours?"
Source: Steven Emerson, "Dutton of Arabia" in "New Republic", 16
June 1982
The following year Begin invaded Lebanon. General Haig, at the
head of the war department, gives the "go ahead" for this invasion
destined to set up a Christian government in Beirut.
Source: Ze'ev Shiff and Ehud Ya'ari: "Israel's Lebanon War", N.Y.,
Simon and Shuster, 1984
Few Americans criticized this invasion just as few Israelis had
criticized that of Vietnam. But the massacres of Sabra and Chatila
(carried out under the eyes of, and with the complicity of, Sharon
and Eytan) and the images which were given to television, forced the
Jewish lobby to break the silence.
The Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, Hertzberg, and many
rabbis criticized Begin in October 1982. Begin reproached rabbi
Schindler who had made his criticism on television, for being
"more American than Jewish" and one of his assistants
denounced him as a "traitor".
Source: Michael Kremer, "American Jews and Israel. The Schism",
N.Y., 18 October 1982
A spokesman for A.I.P.A.C. explained the strategy of those who,
like him, approved of the invasion:
"We want to reinforce our support for Israel on the right wing -
with people who aren't worried about what's going on on the West Bank
but who target the Soviet Union."
Source: interview recorded by Tivnan, p. 181.
On this occasion the Zionist christians supported the Israeli
aggression and their leader, Jerry Falwell, whom Begin called "the
man who represents 60 million American Christians" in a country
where there are only 6 million Jews, received the highest Zionist
honor : The Jabotinski Prize for services rendered to Israel, plus
100 million dollars from the State of Israel and 140 million dollars
from the Swaggert donation.
Source: "Time", "Power, glory, politics", 17 February 1986
Financial power and, consequently, political power, in a world
where everything is bought and sold, is becoming more and more
decisive.
Since 1948 the U.S. has supplied Israel with 28 billion dollars in
military and economic aid.
Source: "Time" magazine of June 1994
* * *
Comforted by the financial flux which flooded into Israel:
1 - From German and Austrian "reparations";
2 - Because of unconditional American generosity;
3 - From payments from the Diaspora;
the Israeli leaders could consider, in foreign policy, the most
ambitious aims of a "greater Israel".
We have an accurate testimony from an article of the revue
"Kivounim" (Orientations) published in Jerusalem by "The
World Zionist Organization" on "the strategic plans of Israel for
the 80's":
"As a centralized body, Egypt is already a corpse, especially if
one takes account of the ever more violent confrontation between
muslims and christians. Its division into distinct geographical
provinces must be our political objective for the 90's, on the
western front.
Once Egypt has been thus dislocated and deprived of central power,
countries like Libya, Sudan and others farther away will experience
the same dissolution. The formation of a Coptic state in Upper Egypt,
and of small regional entities of little size is the key to a
historic development which has been slowed down by the peace
agreement, but is inescapable in the long term.
In spite of appearances, the western front presents fewer problems
than the one in the east. The partition of Lebanon into five
provinces... Will prefigure what will happen all over the Arab world.
The disintegration of Syria and Iraq into regions, based on ethnic or
religious criteria, must be, in the long term, a primary goal for
Israel, the first step being the destruction of the military power of
these states.
The ethnic structures of Syria expose it to a dismantling which could
lead to the creation of a Shiite state along the coast, a Sunni state
in the Aleppo region and another one in Damascus, and a Druze entity
which might hope to constitute its own state - perhaps on our Golan -
in any case with Houran and the north of Jordan... Such a state would
be, in the long term, a guarantee of peace and security in the
region. It is an objective which is already within our reach.
Oil-rich, and victim of internal strife, Iraq is in the Israeli
firing line. Its dissolution would be, for us, more important than
Syria's, because it is Iraq which, in the short term, represents the
more serious threat for Israel."
Source: "Kivounim", Jerusalem, No. 14, February 1982, pp. 49 -
59
(The integral text, in its Hebrew original, is reproduced in my book:
"Palestine, terre des messages divins", Pub. Albatros, Paris, 1986,
pp. 137 to 387, and in its French translation starting on page
315.)
For the realization of this enormous project the Israeli leaders had
at their disposal limitless American aid. Of the 507 planes which
they had on the eve of the invasion of Lebanon, 457 came from the
U.S. thanks to gifts and loans sanctioned by Washington. The American
lobby took it on itself to obtain the necessary means even if this
meant going against the national interest, under pressure from the
Zionist lobby.
When the objectives of the Kivounim plan were too far away and the
confrontation too risky, the Israeli lobby succeeded in having the
job done by the U.S. The war against Iraq is a striking example.
"Two powerful pressure groups push the U.S. to opening of
hostilities.
1 - The "Jewish lobby", because the elimination of Saddam Hussein
would do away with the threat of the most powerful Arab country.. The
American Jews play a key role in the North American media. The
permanent state of compromise between the President and Congress
leads the White House to pay serious attention to their
entreaties.
2 - The "business lobby"... has got to the stage of thinking that war
could relaunch the economy. Didn't the Second World War, and the
enormous orders which it generated for the U.S put an end to the
crisis of 1929 out of which it hadn't really emerged? Didn't the
Korean War provoke a new boom?
Oh happy war which would bring prosperity back to America..."
Source: Alain Peyrefitte, "Le Figaro", 5 November 1990
"It is difficult to overestimate the political influence of
the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (A.I.P.A.C.)... which
has a budget which quadrupled between 1982 and 1986 (1,600,000
dollars in 1982 ; 6,900,000 dollars in 1988)."
Source: "Wall Street Journal", 24 June 1987
The Zionist leaders didn't hide the role of their lobby. Ben
Gurion stated clearly: "When a Jew, in America or in South Africa,
talks to his Jewish companions about 'our' government, he means the
government of Israel."
Source: "Rebirth and Destiny of Israel", 1954, p. 489
At the 23rd congress of the World Zionist Organization he
stipulates that the duty of a jew abroad includes "the collective
obligation of every Zionist organization in various countries 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."
Source: Ben Gurion: "Tasks and Character of a Modern Zionist",
"Jerusalem Post", 17 August 1952 and "Jewish Telegraphic Agency", 8
August 1951
This confusion of Judaism as a religion (worthy of respect like
all others) with political zionism including unconditional allegiance
to the State of Israel (substituting for the God of Israel), can only
feed anti-semitism.
The State Department was forced to react. In a letter addressed to
the "American Council for Judaism", made public by the latter on 7
May 1964, Secretary of State Talbot, referring to the very principles
of the American Constitution, regarding which the demands of the
Zionist leaders constituted a challenge, reminded us that his
country"recognizes the State of Israel as a sovereign state, and the
citizenship of the State of Israel. It "recognizes no other
sovereignty or citizenship in this regard. It doesn't recognize any
politico-legal relationship founded on a religious identification of
American citizens. It doesn't discriminate between American citizens
on religious grounds. Consequently, it should be clear that the State
Department doesn't consider the concept of a "Jewish people" to be a
concept of international law."
Source: Quoted by Georges Friedman in "Fin du peuple juif",
(Gallimard, 1956), Idees poche, p. 292
A strictly platonic declaration, besides, as this obvious legal
reminder was followed up by no measure against the lobby.
The Pollard affair gives us an example.
In November 1985 an American Zionist militant, Jonathan Pollard, an
analyst at navy headquarters, was arrested while taking home some
secret documents. Interrogated by the F.B.I., he admits having
received 50,000 dollars since the beginning of 1984 for sending these
documents to Israel.
"The Pollard affair didn't come out of nowhere. It is in keeping
with the current system of American-Israeli relations, more and more
unwholesome, characterized by an excessive dependence which favorizes
brazen attitudes.
This situation was created in 1981, when the Reagan administration
gave Israel what was interpreted as a "carte blanche" to its military
adventurism, under the pretext of self-defense. The first result of
this was the invasion of Lebanon.
...It was predictable that such complacency from Washington
would encourage arrogance in Jerusalem. It is well known
that ties of close dependence sow resentment and aggression. In
Israel's case, this resentment takes ill-considered forms ; the
attack on Tunis is one. It is possible that the Pollard affair is
another."
Source: "Washington Post", 5 December 1985
"For decades American Jews have been trying hard to convince
American public opinion that their unconditional support for Israel
didn't effect their loyalty to the U.S.. It now seems that it will be
difficult to trust them on this point, and those who talk about
"double allegiance" will find an understanding ear."
Source: "Haaretz", 1 December 1985
There is no shortage of examples where the israeli-Zionist lobby
succeeds in imposing on the U.S. an attitude which is unfavorable to
American interests but useful for Israeli policy.
Here are some examples:
The president of the Senate Foreign Affairs Commission, Senator
Fullbright, decided to summon the main Zionist leaders before a
committee which threw some light on their underground activities. He
summed up the results of his enquiry in a "Face the Nation" interview
on C.B.S., 7 October 1973: "The Israelis control policy in
Congress and in the Senate". He added:"Our colleagues in the
Senate, about 70% of them, make up their minds more under the
pressure of a lobby than from their own vision of what they consider
to be the principles of liberty and justice."
In the next elections Fullbright lost his seat as senator.
Since Senator Fullbright's enquiry, the Zionist "lobby" has continued
to strengthen its grip on American policy. In his book, "They Dare
to Speak Out", (published in 1985 by Lawrence Hill and Co.) Paul
Findley, who had a seat in the U.S. Congress for 22 years, described
the current working and power of the Zionist "lobby". This veritable
"branch of the Israeli government" controls Congress and Senate, the
Presidency of the Republic, the State Department and the Pentagon as
well as the media and it exercises its influence in the universities
as well as in the churches.
There is no shortage of examples showing how the Israelis' demands
take priority over the interests of the U.S.: On 3 October 1984 the
House of Representatives repealed, by a majority of 98%, all
limitations to exchanges between Israel and the U.S. in spite of the
unfavorable report of the Ministry of Commerce and the opposition of
all the unions (p. 31). Every year, whatever the restrictions on
other areas of the budget, credit for Israel is increased. The degree
of espionage is such that the most secret dossiers fall into the
hands of the Israeli government. Adlai Stevenson (former presidential
candidate in the U.S.) wrote in the winter '75 - '76 issue of
"Foreign Affairs": "Practically no decision concerning Israel can
be taken, or even discussed, at executive level, without being
immediately known about by the Israeli government." (p. 126) In
spite of the refusal of the Secretary of State for Defense, founded
on American law, to deliver to Israel, during its offensive in
Lebanon, fragmentation bombs (a weapon used against civilians), the
Israelis get them from Reagan and use them on two occasions in Beirut
to massacre the population. (p. 143)
In 1973 the American admiral Thomas Moorer (head of combined military
H.Q.) testifies: The Israeli military attache in Washington, Mordecai
Gur (future commander-in-chief of the Israeli forces), asks for
planes armed with a very sophisticated missile (called "Maverick")
from the U.S.. Admiral Moorer remembers that he said to Gur:"I
cannot deliver these planes to you. We only have one squadron. And we
swore to congress that we needed them." Gur said to me, "Give
us the planes. As for Congress, I'll take care of it." That's
how", the Admiral adds, "the only squadron equipped with
Mavericks went to Israel." (p. 161)
On 8 June 1967 the Israeli air force and navy bombard the American
ship "Liberty" (equipped with very sophisticated detectors) to
prevent it from detecting their invasion plans for the Golan. 34
sailors are killed and 171 wounded. The ship is overflown for 6 hours
and bombarded for 70 minutes. The Israeli government excuses itself
for this "error" and the matter is closed. It is only in 1980 that
one of the eyewitnesses, Ennes, an officer on the bridge of the
Liberty, can establish the truth, destroying the "official" version
of the "error", ratified by the "commission of enquiry" at the time,
chaired by Admiral Isaac Kid. Ennes proves that the attack was
deliberate and that it was a question of murder. Admiral Thomas
Moorer, while Ennes' book was smothered by the Zionist "lobby",
explains why this crime was kept quiet: "President Johnson feared
the reaction of the Jewish electorate..." . The Admiral adds:
"The American people would go crazy if they knew what had
happened." (p. 179)
In 1980 Adlai Stevenson, having sponsored an amendment demanding a
reduction of 10% in military aid to Israel in order to force them to
stop setting up colonies in the occupied territories, reminded us
that 43% of American aid went to Israel (3 million inhabitants) for
its arms, to the detriment of 3 billion people starving in the
world.
Adlai Stevenson concluded,"The Prime Minister of Israel has a lot
more influence over U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East than he
has in his own country." (p. 92)
Any thing goes for the Zionist lobby: from financial pressure to
blackmail, from boycotting the media and publishers to death
threats.
Paul Findley concludes: "Whoever criticizes Israeli policy can
expect painful and incessant reprisals and even the loss of his means
of existence by the pressure of the Israeli "lobby". The President is
afraid of it. Congress gives in to all its demands. The most
prestigious universities see to it that in their programs there is
nothing which opposes it. The media giants and the military chiefs
give in to its pressure." (p. 315)
Source: Hearings, Part 9, 23 May, 1963
This was an excerpt from Roger Garaudy's book "The
Founding Myths of Israeli Politics".
