Israel and anti-Americanism

By Shafqat Mahmood
The writer is a former Senator and a former federal and provincial minister

The sights and sounds of the Afghan war are drowning out the terrible atrocity being perpetrated on the Palestinian people. Israeli tanks have ploughed into their territories killing and burning at will. About fifty people have been killed in this latest barbarity including women and children. Nothing is being spared. Churches, hospitals, mosques, schools, all are targets. This is Sharon's way of imposing a final solution in Palestine.

American calls for restraint are having no effect. In a strongly worded statement, US State Department, has asked the Israelis to immediately withdraw their troops from Palestinian territories. No one seems to care in Israel. Ten years of hard work toward peace, beginning at Oslo and carried forward in Madrid and other places, is being torn asunder by Sharon and his troops.

The so-called international community that gets so worked up about happenings in other places is strangely muted this time around. When confronted with a direct question about Israeli atrocities, the leaders of the West tread on eggshells. The fear of hurting Israeli sensibilities is so strong that it overpowers any revulsion they may feel on the killing of innocent men, women and children.

The western media generally follows suit. BBC does a little better job than the others but is often seen bending over backwards to get the Israeli point of view across. The American channels are blatantly anti-Palestine and pro Israel. A stone throwing Palestinian boy is made out to be more dangerous than the fire breathing monsters that Israelis hurl on him and others like him. Then they ask quite innocently or not so innocently, why the Muslim world hates them so much?

Nothing sounded hollower than President Bush's repeated assertion that the terrorists hate our freedoms, our democracy. No Sir, they don't hate your freedoms or democracy. In fact an overwhelming majority of the people in the Muslim world would love to have the same freedoms and democracy that the Americans have. They also crave for the economic opportunity that America offers. A clear majority is also not threatened by American culture. What they hate are double standards and immoral conduct on the part of the most powerful state in the world.

Nothing has hurt American image in the Muslim world more than its unquestioning support for Israel. Every nation has a right to support whom they like but America's support for Israel gets translated into American planes, American tanks and American bullets killing innocent men, women and children. It gets translated into Israeli expansionism in the West Bank and Gaza where new settlements of Israelis continue to sprout. It also gets translated into a rampant Israel threatening the security of every Arab state around it. At the end of the day it gets translated into a support for immoral and unjust conduct.

It is hard to believe that the American establishment does not understand this. The global reach of its diplomacy cannot be insensitive to the reaction around the world. The same cannot be said for the average American citizen. He or she is generally unaware about what is going on in the world and has little or no idea of what is being done in his or her name by the Federal government. This is a frightening lack of involvement for a citizenry of the only superpower in the world.

Let no one misconstrue this as a censure of the American people. This is just the way the world functions out there. The ordinary people have many qualities that others could do well to emulate. They are kind and decent, and more considerate of outsiders than any other nation in the world. Having been a student for some years in that country I can testify to the warmth and friendship that my family and I received from neighbours and colleagues and generally from everyone we came across. The only point I am making is that most Americans are uninvolved with the world beyond their town, county or the state. If it were not for atrocities like the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, they would happily go through life without giving a thought to what happens in the world beyond their shores.

The same cannot be said of the interest groups who have agendas to pursue in Washington. They watch everything very carefully and marshal their resources to influence the policy of the most powerful country in the world. There are many such interest groups operating in Washington but no one is as powerful as AIPAC, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee. It is this lobby that moulds US foreign policy towards Israel and also towards any other country that directly or indirectly impacts Israel.

Before going into the reasons of why Israeli lobby in the US is strong it would also be instructive to understand how the American government functions. Many people in Pakistan may think that George W Bush runs America. This is only partially true. The American Presidency is a powerful institution but its power is moderated by a very strong congress. No major foreign policy decision can be taken by the President alone. He has to take the congress along.

Then comes the question of money. The American President cannot spend a penny unless the congress approves it. Money in Foreign Affairs is a major tool. It can be used to give aid or military assistance. Often money is enough to tilt the balance in smaller countries where a billion or two goes a long way. Since the money is controlled by the congress, the American Presidents ability to conduct foreign policy is severely hamstrung.

I have gone into some detail to explain all this because even if the President is convinced of a particular direction for American foreign policy, the congress can stop him. The fact that Sharon is not paying any attention to American pleadings to stop the incursions into Palestinian territory is precisely because he knows of the support that Israel has in the congress. In other words Sharon is confident to stop the American President in his tracks because of AIPAC and its supporters in the Congress. There are unconfirmed reports that Sharon has said as much. In a closed-door meeting he is supposed to have said that America is in our pocket.

Why is AIPAC so strong in the United States when the Jews number only six million in the United States? By some accounts the Muslims in America, including the converted black Muslims, are close to ten million. Americans of Latin decent are perhaps 20 or 30 million. So why is it that a small minority exercises so much influence in the United States?

The answer is simple. The Jews have large concentrations of population in key swing states like New York, California, Florida, Illinois etc. They can have a major impact on all types of elections. Just for the record, 84 percent of the Jews voted for Al Gore. Yet, Bush dare not offend the Jewish Community by leaning hard on Israel because the congress is full of people elected with the help of Jewish Vote.

The story does not end here. The influence of Israeli supporters in the American media is overwhelming. Jews own the main television networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC. They own the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal and hundreds of big and small newspapers all across America. They own TIME and NEWSWEEK. They own the major publishing houses. They literally own or run all the major studios in Hollywood. Which politician will be willing to take on this juggernaut?

The problem is that even pointing out the overwhelming influence of Israeli supporters in the American government or the media or the Academia has now been termed anti-Semitic. This has put everyone in mainstream America on the defensive. No one is willing to risk being called this ugly name. No one is willing to say that the Israeli lobby has made the United States hated around the world. That it is this lobby that has created breeding grounds for terrorism against the United States.

Any possibility of a moral basis to American foreign policy has been held hostage to Israel and its lobby in the United States. Israeli tanks would continue to kill and maim and destroy. The anger will continue to be fed and the rage will build to a boiling point. Then, someone will innocently ask, why do they hate us so much?

[republished with permission by the author from www.jang.com.pk]

Date/Time Last Modified: 6/3/2004 6:45:13 AM

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