Connecting the dots: IRAQ & PALESTINE
The Israeli lobby and the Iraq War
by Mazin Qumsiyeh
Over 80% of Iraqis want the US to leave Iraq and 60% support attacks on US soldiers and mercenaries (aka "contractors"). A large majority of the US public also want withdrawal (not redeployment and not the fake "winning" strategies of politicians who are always behind the curve). Get out of Iraq is what most of the world wants the US to do. Polls show Bush with the lowest approval ratings ever (in the twentys). Some call it Bush's war but it is also becoming clearer (at least on the internet though not in mainstream media) that the war was conceived, planned and managed by a neoconservative cabal that has taken full control of the US executive branch. Their inspiration is the right wing elements in Israel and their goal is nothing short of subverting the US to serve what they perceive as Israeli interests. There is overwhelming evidence of organic links between the war on Iraq and the war on Palestine (evidence suppressed in the media by those who believe Israel must continue to dominate and oppress Palestinians and deny their internationally recognized rights including the right of refugees to return to their homes and lands).
To me the most interesting misinformation disseminated both among some in the left and the right is that US foreign policy in Iraq and in supporting Israel’s destruction of Palestine are merely related to US “strategic interests.” They may differ in their formulation of the main US “interests”, but you hear the same argument from leftists like Noam Chomsky and Stephen Zunes and rightists like Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle. This mistaken notion in fact was pushed and articulated by the Israeli lobby and Israeli apologists in the media for decades well before neocons and some leftists adopted it. The Israeli lobby in Washington was never monolithic and new that to be effective it had to get into both major parties in the US. The lobby knew that the best way to advance closer working relationship with the right would be that Israel is a good and willing “tool” for advancing US interests. Such a formulation helps deflect criticism from patriotic Americans who worry about the growing influence of this lobby. On the other side, left leaning Zionists wanted to work with a democratic left that occasionally complained about “US Imperialism” and corporate interests. In that case, it was easier to claim Israel helps US public interests or that Israel is a democratic ally. When push comes to shove, even Zionists on the left would deflect any critique of the Zionist lobby claiming that criticism should be solely directed to the masters (corporate or other elites) who merely “use” Israel as a tool.
Senator Fullbright, Congressman Paul Findley, Jesse Jackson, Admiral Moorer, Jeff Blankfort, Alison Weir, and hundreds of others have articulated in books and articles why the Israeli lobby’s formulation (whether cast in left or right angles) is at best misleading and at worse false and dangerous. Clearly, those conscientious critics come at it from very different angles. Some argued that elites and those in power in the US can and have used Israel occasionally as a gopher but that this was a net loss for US elite interests. Israel’s role as intermediary in the Iran Contra scandal is now well known even though at the time, congressional record referred simply to a “third country”. It is also well known that Congressional prohibition on assassination and other basic human rights violations by US forces are “bypassed” by the executive branch relying on Israel to do so. But could such tasks have been accomplished by other puppet countries even cheaper and without hurting US interests in the Arab and Islamic world?
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