\u201cPro-Israel Policy groups such as AIPAC work with unlimited funding to divert US policy in the region (Middle East)\u201d<\/i>\u00a0— Jack Straw, Member of Parliament and former Foreign Secretary of the British Labor Party<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States should drop a nuclear bomb on Iran to spur the country to end its nuclear program\u201d\u00a0<\/i>—\u00a0\u00a0Sheldon Adelson, biggest donor to the Republican Party and major fundraiser for pro-Israel political action committees,\u00a0 speech at Yeshiva University, New York City, October 22, 2013.<\/p>\n
Introduction<\/b><\/p>\n
The question of war or peace with Iran rests with the policies adopted by the White House and the US Congress.\u00a0 The peace overtures by newly elected Iranian President Rohani have resonated favorably around the world, except with Israel and its Zionist acolytes in North America and Europe.\u00a0 The first negotiating session proceeded without recrimination and resulted in an optimistic assessment by both sides.\u00a0 Precisely because of the initial favorable response among the participants, the Israeli government escalated its propaganda war against Iran .\u00a0 Its agents in the US Congress, the mass media and in the Executive branch moved to undermine the peace process.\u00a0 What is at stake is Israel\u2019s capacity to wage proxy wars using the US military and its NATO allies against any government challenging Israeli military supremacy in the Middle East, its violent annexation of Palestinian territory and its ability to attack any adversary with impunity.<\/p>\n
To understand what is at stake in the current peace negotiations one must envision the consequences of failure:\u00a0 Under Israeli pressure, the US announced that its \u2018military option\u2019 could be activated \u2013 resulting in missile strikes and a bombing campaign against 76 million Iranians in order to destroy their government and economy.\u00a0 Teheran could retaliate against such aggression by targeting US military bases in the region and Gulf oil installations resulting in a global crisis.\u00a0 This is what Israel wants.<\/p>\n
We will begin by examining the context of Israel \u2019s military supremacy in the Middle East .\u00a0 We will then proceed to analyze Israel \u2019s incredible power over the US political process and how it shapes the negotiation process today, with special emphasis on Zionist power in the US Congress.<\/p>\n
The Context of Israeli Military Supremacy in the Middle East<\/b><\/p>\n
Since the end of World War II , Israel has bombed, invaded and occupied more countries in the Middle East and Africa than previous colonial power, except the US .\u00a0 The list of Israel \u2019s victims includes:\u00a0 Palestine , Syria , Lebanon , Egypt , Iraq , Jordan , Sudan and Yemen .\u00a0 If we include countries where Israel has launched quasi-clandestine terrorist attacks and assassinations, the list would be greatly expanded to include a dozen countries in Europe and Asia \u2013 including the US through its Zionist terror network.<\/p>\n
Israel \u2019s projection of military power, its capacity for waging offensive wars at will, is matched by its near-total impunity.\u00a0 Despite their repeated violations of international law, including war crimes, Israel has never been censored at an international tribunal or subjected to economic sanctions because the US government uses its position to veto UN Security Council resolutions and pressure its NATO-EU allies.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s military supremacy has less to do with the native techno-industrial \u2018brilliance\u2019 of its war-mongers and more to do with the transfers and outright theft of nuclear, chemical and biological technology and weapons from the US (Grant Smith \u201cTen Explosive US Government Secrets of Israel\u201d IRMEP).\u00a0 Overseas Zionists in the US and France have played a strategic (and treasonous) role in stealing and illegally shipping nuclear technology and weapon components to Israel, according to an investigation by former CIA Director Richard Helms.<\/p>\n
Israel maintains huge nuclear, chemical, and biological weapon stockpiles refusing any access to international arms inspectors and is not obliged to abide by the non-proliferation treaty, because of US diplomatic intervention.\u00a0 Under pressure from the local \u2018Zionist power configuration\u2019 (ZPC), the US government has blocked any action which might constrain Israel \u2019s production of weapons of mass destruction.\u00a0 In fact the US continues to provide Israel with strategic weapons of mass destruction for use against its neighbors \u2013 in violation of international law.<\/p>\n
US military aid and technology transfers to Israel exceed $100 billion dollars over the past half century.\u00a0 US diplomatic and military intervention was crucial in rescuing Israel from defeat during the 1973 war.\u00a0 US President Lyndon Johnson\u2019s refusal to defend the unarmed intelligence ship, the USS Liberty in 1967, after it had been bombed and napalmed by Israeli fighter planes and warships in international waters, constituted a tremendous victory for Israel thanks to Johnson\u2019s Zionist advisers.\u00a0 Because of its impunity, even in killing American servicemen, Israel has been given a free hand to wage aggressive wars to dominate its neighbors, commit acts of terrorism and assassinate its adversaries throughout the world without fear of retaliation.<\/p>\n
Israel \u2019s uncontested military superiority \u00a0has converted several of its neighbors to quasi-client collaborators:\u00a0 Egypt and Jordan have served as de facto allies, along with the Gulf monarchies, helping Israel repress the region\u2019s nationalist and pro-Palestinian movements.<\/p>\n
The most decisive factor in the rise\u00a0and consolidation of Israel \u2019s power in the Middle East has not been its military prowess but its political reach and influence via its Zionist agents in the US .\u00a0 Washington \u2019s wars against \u00a0 Iraq and Libya , and its current support of the mercenary assault against Syria , have destroyed three major secular nationalist opponents of Israel \u2019s hegemonic ambitions.<\/p>\n
As Israel accumulates more power in the region, expanding its colonization of Palestinian territory, it looks eastward toward destroying the last remaining obstacle to its colonial policies:\u00a0 Iran .<\/p>\n
For at least two decades, Israel has directed its overseas agents \u2013 (the ZPC) \u2013 to destroy the government of Iran by destabilizing its society, assassinating its scientists, bombing its military establishments and laboratories and strangling its economy.<\/p>\n
After the ZPC successfully pushed the US into war against Iraq in 2003 \u2013 literally shredding its complex secular society and killing over a million Iraqis \u2013 it turned its sights on destroying Lebanon (Hezbollah) and the secular government of Syria as a way to isolate Iran and prepare for an attack.\u00a0 While thousands of Lebanese civilians were slaughtered in 2006, Israel \u2019s attack of Lebanon failed, despite the support of the US government and the ZPC\u2019s wild propaganda campaign.\u00a0 Hysterical at its failure and to \u2018compensate\u2019 for its defeat at the hands of Hezbollah and to \u2018boost morale\u2019, Israel invaded and destroyed much of Gaza (2008\/9) \u2013 the world\u2019s largest open air prison camp.<\/p>\n
Lacking military capacity to attack Iran on its own, Israel directed its agents to manipulate the US government to start a war with Teheran.\u00a0 The militarist leaders in Tel Aviv have unleashed their political assets (ZPC) throughout the US \u00a0to work to destroy Iran \u2013 the last formidable adversary to Israel supremacy in the Middle East .<\/p>\n
The Israeli-ZPC strategy is designed to set the stage for a US confrontation with Iran , using its agents in the Executive branch as well as its ongoing corruption, bribery and control of the US Congress.\u00a0 ZPC control over the mass media enhances its propaganda campaign:\u00a0 Everyday the New York Times and the Washington Post publish articles and editorials promoting Israel \u2019s war agenda.\u00a0 The\u00a0 ZPC uses the US State Department to force other NATO states to likewise confront Iran .<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s Proxy War with Iran:\u00a0 US Political Pressure, Economic Sanctions and Military Threats<\/b><\/p>\n
Alone, Israel\u2019s \u2018war\u2019 with Iran would not amount to much more than its cyber sabotage, the periodical assassinations of Iranian scientists using its paid agents among Iranian terrorist groups and non-stop brow-beating from Israeli politicians and their \u2018amen crowd\u2019.\u00a0 Outside of Israel , this campaign has had little impact on public opinion.\u00a0 Israel\u2019s \u2018was\u2019 on Iran depends exclusively on its capacity to manipulate US policy using its local agents and groups who dominate the US Congress and through the appointments of officials in key positions in the Departments of Treasury, Commerce, and Justice , and as Middle East \u2018advisors\u2019.\u00a0 Israel cannot organize an effective sanction campaign against Iran ; nor could it influence any major power to abide by such a campaign.\u00a0 Only the US has that power.\u00a0 Israel \u2019s dominance in the Middle East comes entirely from its capacity to mobilize its proxies in the United States who are assigned the task of securing total submission to \u00a0 Israel \u2019s interests from elected and appointed government officials \u2013 especially in regard to Israel \u2019s regional adversaries.<\/p>\n
Strategically placed, \u2018dual US-Israeli citizens\u2019 have used their US citizenship to secure high security positions in the Government directly involved in policies affecting Israel .\u00a0 As Israelis, their activities are in line with the dictates of Tel Aviv.\u00a0 In the Bush administration (2001-2008) high placed \u2018Israel Firsters\u2019 dominated the Pentagon (Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith), Middle East Security (Martin Indyk, Dennis Ross), the Vice President\u2019s office (\u2018Scooter\u2019 Libby), Treasury (Levey) and Homeland Security (Michael Chertoff).\u00a0 In the Obama administration the \u2018Israel Firsters\u2019 include Dennis Ross, Rahm Emanuel, David Cohen, Secretary of Treasury Jack \u201cJake the Snake\u201d Lew, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and Michael Froman as Trade Representative among others.<\/p>\n
Israel \u2019s Proxy Power within the Executive branch is matched by its dominance of the US Congress.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Contrary to some critics, Israel is neither an \u2018ally\u2019 or \u2018client\u2019 of the US .\u00a0 Evidence of the gross asymmetry of the relation abounds over the past half century.\u00a0 Because of these powerful proxies in Congress and the Executive branch, Israel has received over $100 billion dollar tribute from the US over the past 30 years, or $3 billion plus a year.\u00a0 The US Pentagon has transferred the most up-to-date military technology and engaged in several wars on Israel \u2019s behalf.\u00a0 The US Treasury has imposed sanctions against potentially lucrative trading and investment partners in the Middle East ( Iran , Iraq and Syria ) depriving US agricultural and manufacturing exporters and oil companies of over $500 billion in revenues.\u00a0 The White House sacrificed the lives of over 4,400 US soldiers in the Iraq War \u2013 a war promoted by Israel \u2019s proxies at the behest of Israel \u2019s leaders.\u00a0 The State Department has rejected friendly and profitable relations with over 1.5 billion Muslims by backing the illegal settlement of over half million Jewish colonists on military-occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank and Jerusalem .<\/p>\n
The strategic question is how and why this one-sided relation between the US and Israel persists for so long, even as it goes counter to so many strategic and elite US interests?\u00a0 The more immediate and pressing question is how this historically lopsided relation effects contemporary US-Iran sanctions and nuclear negotiations?<\/p>\n
Iran and the Peace Negotiations<\/b><\/p>\n
Undoubtedly the newly elected Iranian President and his Foreign Minister are prepared to negotiate an end to hostilities with the US by making major concessions ensuring the peaceful use of nuclear energy.\u00a0 They have stated they are open to reducing or even ending the production of highly enriched uranium; reducing the number of centrifuges and even allowing intrusive, unannounced inspections, among other promising proposals.\u00a0 The Iranian government proposes a roadmap with end goals as part of the initial agreements.\u00a0 The European Union\u2019s Foreign Secretary Lady Ashton has commented favorably on the initial meeting.<\/p>\n
The US Administration has given conflicting signals following the Iranian overtures and the opening meeting.\u00a0 Some individual comments are guardedly positive; others are less encouraging and rigid.\u00a0 Administration Zionists like Jack \u2018Jake\u2019 Lew, the Treasury Secretary, insists sanctions will remain until Iran meets all US (read \u2018Israeli\u2019) demands.\u00a0 The US Congress, bought and controlled by the ZPC, rejects the promising Iranian overtures and flexibility, insisting on military \u2018options\u2019 or the total dismantling of Iran\u2019s legal and peaceful nuclear program \u2013 ZPC positions designed to sabotage the negotiations.\u00a0 To that end, Congress has passed new, more extreme, economic sanctions to strangle the Iran \u2019s oil economy.<\/p>\n
How Israel\u2019s Political Action Committees Control the US Congress and Prepare War with Iran<\/b><\/p>\n
The Zionist Power Configuration uses its financial firepower to dictate Congressional policy on the Middle East and to ensure that the US Congress and Senate do not stray one iota from serving Israel \u2019s interests. \u00a0The Zionist instrument used in the purchase of elected officials in the US is the political action committee (PAC).<\/p>\n
Thanks to a 2010 US Supreme Court decision, Super PACs-linked to Israel spend enormous sums \u00a0to elect or destroy candidates \u2013 depending on the candidate\u2019s political work on behalf of Israel .\u00a0 As long as these funds do not go directly to the candidate, these Super PACs do not have to reveal how much they spend or how it is spent.\u00a0 Conservative estimates of ZPC- linked direct and indirect funds to US legislators run close to $100 million dollars over the past 30-year.\u00a0 The ZPC channels these funds to legislative leaders and members of Congressional committees dealing with foreign policy, especially sub-committee \u00a0chairpersons dealing with the Middle East .\u00a0 Unsurprisingly, the largest Congressional recipients of ZPC money are those who have aggressively promoted Israel \u2019s hard-line policies.\u00a0 Elsewhere around the world, such large scale payoffs for legislative votes would be considered blatant bribery and subject to felony prosecution\u00ad and imprisonment for both parties.\u00a0 In the US , the purchase and sale of a politician\u2019s vote is called \u2018lobbying\u2019 and is legal and open.\u00a0 The legislative branch of the US government has come to resemble a high-price brothel or white slavers\u2019 auction \u2013 but with the lives of thousands at stake.<\/p>\n
The ZPC has purchased the alliance of US Congress people and Senators on a massive scale:\u00a0 Of 435 members of the US House of Representatives (sic), 219 have received payments from the ZPC in exchange for their votes on behalf of the state of Israel .\u00a0 Corruption is even more rampant among the 100 US Senators, 94 of whom have accepted pro-Israel PAC and Super PAC money for their loyalty to Israel .\u00a0 The ZPC showers money on both Republicans and Democrats, thus securing incredible (in this era of Congressional deadlock), near unanimous (\u2018bipartisan\u2019) votes in favor of the \u2018Jewish State\u2019, including its war crimes, like the bombing of Gaza and Lebanon as well as the annual $3 billion dollar plus US tax-payer tribute to Tel Aviv.\u00a0 At least 50 US Senators have each collected between $100 thousand and $1 million in ZPC money over the past decades .\u00a0 In exchange, they have voted for over $100 billion in tribute payments to Israel \u2026 in addition to other \u2018services and payments\u2019.\u00a0 The members of the US Congress are cheaper:\u00a0 25 legislators have received between $238,000 and $50,000, while the rest got peanuts.\u00a0 Regardless of the amount, the net result is the same: Congressional member pick up their script from their Zionist mentors in the PACs, Super PACs and AIPAC and back all of Israel \u2019s wars in the Middle East and promote US aggression on behalf of Israel .<\/p>\n
The most outspoken and influential legislators get the biggest chunk of Zionist payola: Senator Mark Kirk (Bombs over Teheran!) tops the \u2018pigs at the trough\u2019 list with $925,000 in ZPC payoffs, followed by John McCain (Bombs over Damascus!) with $771,000, while Senators Mitch McConnell, Carl Levin, Robert Menendez, Richard Durban and other Zionophilic politicos are\u00a0 not shy about holding out their little begging bowls when the pro-Israel PAC bagmen arrive!\u00a0\u00a0 Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen tops the \u2018House\u2019 list with $238,000 for her 100% pro-Israel record as well as for being more war-mongering than even Netanyahu!\u00a0 Eric Cantor got $209,000 for championing \u2018wars for Israel \u2019 with American lives while cutting Social Security payments to US seniors in order to increase military aid to Tel Aviv.\u00a0 House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, got $144,000 for \u2018whipping the few wobbly\u2019 Democrats back into Israel \u2019s \u2018camp\u2019.\u00a0 House Majority Leader John Boehner was paid $130,000 to do the same among the Republicans.<\/p>\n
The ZPC has spent huge amounts to punish and destroy a dozen or so dissident legislators who had stood up to Israel \u2019s wars and grotesque human rights record.\u00a0 The ZPC has poured millions into individual campaigns, not only financing opposition candidates who pledged allegiance to the Israel but mounting scurrilous character assassinations of Israel\u2019s critics in office.\u00a0 These campaigns have been mounted in the most obscure parts of the US , including in majority African-American districts, where local Zionist interests and influence are otherwise absolutely nil.<\/p>\n
There are no comparable PACs, Super PACs, party leaders, or civic organization that can contest the power of Israel \u2019s Fifth Column.\u00a0 According to documents archived by the courageous researcher, Grant Smith of IRMEP, when it comes to Israel , the US Justice Department has adamantly refused to enforce its own federal laws requiring the prosecution of US citizens who fail to register as foreign agents while working for a foreign country \u2013 at least since 1963.\u00a0 On the other hand, the ZPC, through the so-call \u2018Anti-Defamation League\u2019, has successfully pressured the Justice Department, the FBI and NSA to investigate and prosecute law-abiding, patriotic US citizens critical of Israel \u2019s land grabs in Palestine and the Zionist corruptors of the US political system on behalf of their foreign master.<\/p>\n
The corruption and degradation of US democracy is made possible by the equally compromised and corrupted \u2018respectable press\u2019. \u00a0Media critic, Steve Lendman, has pointed out the direct link between Israel and the mass media in his investigation of the New York Times.\u00a0 The leading (\u2018fair and balanced\u2019) journalists reporting on Israel have strong family and political ties to that country and their articles have been little more than propaganda.\u00a0 Times reporter Ethan Bronner, whose son served in the Israel Defense Forces, is a long-time apologist for the Zionist state.\u00a0 Times reporter Isabel Kershner, whose \u2018writing\u2019 seem to come straight out of the Israeli Foreign Office, is married to Hirsh Goodman an adviser to the Netanyahu regime on \u2018security affairs\u2019.\u00a0 The Times bureau chief in Jerusalem, Jodi Rudoren, lives comfortably in the ancestral home of a Palestinian family dispossessed from that ancient city.<\/p>\n
The Times unflinching pro-Israel posture provides a political cover and justification for the corrupted US politicians as they beat the war drums for Israel .\u00a0 It is no surprise that the New York Times, like the Washington Post, is deeply engaged in disparaging and denouncing the current US-Iran negotiations \u2013 and providing ample space for the one-sided rhetoric of Israeli politicians and their US mouthpieces, while studiously excluding the more rational, pro-rapprochement voices of experienced former US diplomats, war-weary military leaders and representatives of the US business and academic communities.<\/p>\n
To understand Congress\u2019 hostility to the nuclear negotiations with Iran and their efforts to scuttle them through the imposition of ridiculous new sanctions, it is important to get to the source of the problem, namely the statements of key Israeli politicians, who set the line of march for their US proxies.<\/p>\n
In late October, 2013, Former Israeli Defense Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin spoke of \u2018having to choose between \u2018the bomb\u2019 or the bombing\u2019 \u2013 a message which immediately resonated with the 52 Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations (Daily Alert, October 24, 2013).\u00a0 On October 22, 2013, Israel \u2019s Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz, called for harsh new sanctions on Iran and insisted that the US use them as leverage to demand that Iran agree to entirely abandon its peaceful nuclear energy and enrichment program.\u00a0 Defense Minister Moshe Ya\u2019alon affirmed that \u2018 Israel will not accept any deal that allows Iran to enrich uranium\u2019.\u00a0 It is Israel \u2019s position to threaten war (via the US ) if Iran does not submit to unconditional surrender of its nuclear program.\u00a0 This defines the position of all the major pro-Israel PACs, Super PACs and AIPAC.\u00a0 They in turn proceed to dictate policy to their \u2018lick-spittles\u2019 in the US Congress.\u00a0 As a result, Congress passes even more extreme economic sanctions on Iran in order to sabotage the ongoing negotiations.<\/p>\n
Those who have received the biggest Zionist pay-offs from the pro-Israel PACs are the most vociferous:\u00a0 Senator Mark Kirk ($925,379), author of a previous sanctions bill, demands that Iran end its entire nuclear and ballistic missile program (!) and declared that the US Senate \u201cshould immediately move forward with a new round of economic sanctions targeting all remaining Iranian government revenue and reserves\u201d (Financial Times, 10\/18\/13, p. 6).\u00a0 The US House of Representatives (sic) has already passed a bill sharply limiting Iran \u2019s ability to sell its main export, oil.\u00a0\u00a0 Once again, the Israel- ZPC \u2013 Congressional axis seeks to impose Israel \u2019s war agenda on the American people!\u00a0 In late October 2013, Secretary of State Kerry was \u2018grilled\u2019 for 7 hours by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu with the craven Kerry promising to promote Israel \u2019s agenda on dismantling Iran \u2019s nuclear enrichment program.<\/p>\n
To counter the campaign to strangle Iran \u2019s oil economy, promoted by Israel \u2019s flunkeys in the Congress, the Iranian government has offered generous contracts to the US and EU oil companies (Financial Times 10\/29\/2013, p 1).\u00a0 Existing nationalist provisions are being removed.\u00a0 Under the new terms, foreign companies book reserves or take equity stakes in Iranian projects.\u00a0 Iran hopes to attract at least $100 billion dollars in investments over the next three years.\u00a0 This stable country boasts the world\u2019s largest gas and the fourth largest oil reserves.\u00a0 Because of the current US ( Israel )-imposed sanctions, production has fallen from 3.5 million barrels per day in 2011 to 2.58 million barrels per day in 2013.\u00a0 The question is whether \u2018Big Oil\u2019, the giant US and EU companies have to power to challenge the ZPC-stranglehold over US-EU sanction policy.\u00a0 So far, the ZPC has dominated this critical policy and marginalized \u2018Big Oil\u2019 using threats, blackmail and coercion against US policymakers. \u00a0This has effectively shut out US companies from the lucrative Iranian market.<\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/b><\/p>\n
As the US and the 5 other countries attempt to negotiate with Iran , they face enormous obstacles overcoming Israel \u2019s power over the US Congress.\u00a0 Over \u00a0past decades Israel \u2019s agents have bought the loyalties of the vast majority of Congress people, training them to recognize and obey the whistles, signals and script from the war mongers in Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n
This \u2018Axis of War\u2019, has inflicted enormous damage on the world resulting in the deaths of millions of victims of US wars in the Middle East, Southwest Asia and North Africa .\u00a0 The gross corruption and widely recognized bankruptcy of the US legislative system is due to its slavish submission to a foreign power.\u00a0 What remains in Washington is a debased vassal state despised by its own citizens.\u00a0 If the ZPC controlled Congress succeeds once again in destroying the negotiations between the US and Iran via new war-like resolutions, we, the American people, will have to pay an enormous price in lives and treasure.<\/p>\n
The time to act is now.\u00a0 It is time to stand up and expose the role played by the Israeli PACs, Super PACs and the 52 Major American Jewish Organization in corrupting Congress and turning \u201cour\u201d elected representatives into flunkeys for Israel\u2019s wars.\u00a0 There has been a deafening silence from our noted critics \u2013few alternative media critics have attacked Israel \u2019s power over the US Congress.\u00a0 The evidence is openly available, the crimes are undeniable.\u00a0 The American people need real political leaders with the courage to root out the corrupted and corruptors and force their elected members in the House and Senate to represent the interest of the American people.<\/p>\n
_________________________<\/p>\n
James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. He is the author of more than 62 books published in 29 languages, and over 600 articles in professional journals. He has a long history of commitment to social justice, working in particular with the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement for 11 years. In 1973-76 he was a member of the Bertrand Russell Tribunal on Repression in Latin America. He writes a monthly column for the Mexican newspaper, La Jornada, and previously, for the Spanish daily, El Mundo. He received his B.A. from Boston University and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.<\/em><\/p>\n