Wait…Let me just go fill my bong first.

Thanks for reviewing & calling your readers’ attention to Dr Petras’ newest book, and to the crucial issues he tackles, the most crucial being that raised also in the runaway bestseller by Profs. Walt & Mearsheimer: “The Israel Lobby”, or, in Petras’ more precise nomenclature “the Zionist Power Configuration/ZPC”.

Why is the question of “The Lobby”/ZPC’s power to determine US foreign policy a crucial one for left/progressive US activists? Does it make any difference who’s right, whether the Tail is truly Wagging the Dog, or verse-visey?

Does it really matter whether or not the facts as presented Dr. Petras et al are generally accurate? Why, even though we strongly object to Profs. Walt & Mearsheimer’s overall political philosophy, do we heartily applaud their book & urge all US antiwar activists to get it/read it ASAP?

Why is the difference between Dr Petras’ take on “The Lobby” (a take generally shared by radicals like Jeff Blankfort, Kathy & Bill Christison, Lenni Brenner, and largely by Liberal professors Walt and Mearsheimer) and the divergent “see no evil” view of reality perceived by our supposed allies who share Petras et al’s severely critical view of “Israel” but downplay the ZPC’s role in US policy determination — why is this difference one of enormous historical importance?

Why is it not enough to vociferously complain of Israeli crimes against the Palestinians while ignoring the existence of the Zionist Power Configuration in the US? While failing to take note of the role of The Lobby cum Thought Police cum Apparatus of Mass Disinformation, and the financial base which sustains it all?

Let me answer the question with another question: why hasn’t the Democratic congressional majority, elected to end the war in Iraq, made a serious move in that direction? Why is it that none of the Democrat candidates, except maybe hopeless longshots Kucinich & Gravel, have even promised to withdraw totally from Iraq immediately upon taking office?

Short Answer: Quiet as it’s kept, the Democratic Party is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Israel Incorporated. Not just the DNC or the major candidates: all of it. Down to your local Labor Council & schoolboard.

Not until you realize the scale, scope & penetration of the ZPC’s power do you begin to understand why the antiIraq War movement that exploded in late 2002 has only gone down hill since, and why we are now witnessing a rerun of the same scam they ran in 2004: Forget Protesting/Start Campaigning: Anybody But A Republican.

Once you find out that the Demo Party chain of command reports directly to AIPAC, you begin to appreciate the services to Tel Aviv provided by all the Pretend Progressive psuedo-peaceniks who do their best to divert activist attention from the true state of affairs, & their efforts to keep people from examining the facts about the Zionist Fifth Column in the US “antiwar movement”.

Of all those who ignore or minimize the role of the ZPC, I believe the ANSWER Coalition and its parent PSL and FPA probably take the strongest position vis a vis Israel and Palestine, so they have first claim on my attention.

Here’s what I said yesterday, preceded by a friend’s comment to his listserve readers, which may make my point even better than I did:
—- Original Message —–
From: J
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 6:01 PM
Subject: Wrong ANSWER by Party of Socialism and Liberation.

From Dan E. who astutely points out that articles like the following by Saul Kanowitz that appear to be giving strong support to the Palestinian cause, in terms of effectiveness, do nothing of the sort. Rather, they continue to perpetuate the myth that Israel is a “strategic asset” of the US and continue the “Left’s” head-in-the-sand policy of ignoring the role of the Israel Lobby even when Mearsheimer and Walt’s book exposing it has become a national and soon to be world-wide bestseller. In this case it is the so-called Party of Socialism and Liberation (,) …the organization behind and directing the “anti-war” ANSWER coalition, one of the two existing and arguably ineffective “anti-war” movements: Here is Dan E.:

Here’s the problem in a nutshell:

“U.S. imperialism’s geo-political aims in the Middle East have always included regional domination, either directly or through neo-colonial representatives, like the colonial, settler-state of Israel.”

Emphasis added; another gem:

“For the corporate owners who determine U.S. foreign and domestic policy, the aid and backing of Israel facilitates U.S. regional domination and exploitation of the oil resources that lie below.

(Source: http://www.pslweb.org/ :

“News and Analysis: For Palestinians, resistance is a matter of survival” Tuesday, October 2, 2007 By: Saul Kanowitz )

Or, from PSL/ANSWER top cadre R. Becker’s review of the Jimmy Carter book:

“Bipartisan support for Israel inside the United States has been nearly monolithic, mainly due to Israel’’s vital military role in U.S. global strategy.

ibid.:

Israel’’s role as a vital auxiliary military force is the main reason why U.S. government supports Israel so ardently.

My reading of the above? Besides buying hook/line/sinker the Antonia Juhasz/Liberal Zionist “war for oil” snowjob, (now utterly demolished thanks most recently/resoundingly to Walt/Mearsheimer; cf. “The Israel Lobby” p.288 et seq., & the Index: “Oil”), PSL sees “Israel” as a wholly dependent US appendage, as a wholly owned subsidiary of the US Imperial State. Which means they’ve chosen to ignore the mountains of evidence presented recently making the case that in reality it’s the other way around: the US Congress & Exec Branch are just more Israeli-Occupied Territory.

It IS a subject which can be debated, but rather than debate they’ve so far chosen to ignore it.

Nowhere on the PSL web page could I find a reference to Walt/Mearsheimer, James Petras, the Christisons, Norman Finkelstein or the whole AIPAC/PNAC/Israel Lobby flap. Becker’s review of the Jimmy Carter “Apartheid” book was the closest thing I found.

The biggest problem with this kind of shallow analysis is that it obscures the role of AIPAC-subservient Democrat politicians and organizations, enabling them to pull the wool over even “progressive” eyes to whom they pose as “antiwar candidates”, facilitating the game played by closet-zionist outfits like CCDS, CPUSA, ISO, PDA, DSA, USLAW, NAACP, UFPJ, DFA/Sacramento for Democracy et al.

The PSL view, which as far as I know is also that of Geo. Habash & Co, seems to be that “Israel” is no more than another US puppet carrying out orders issued from the Imperial Center in WashDC, and that The Lobby’s influence on the direction of US policy decisions is so minimal it can be safely ignored. And so can all discussion of it, whether by Liberals like W/M & Norman Finkelstein, or by avowed anti-Imperialists like Petras, Blankfort, Brenner, Schoenman, Hatem Bazian et al.

So: is this just one more example of “Marxist” dogmas learned by rote & mechanically applied, or is there some other reason they resist putting a spotlight on the gargantuan anomaly in the actually existing capitalist system, to wit The Lobby & the filthy rich Jewish Establishment?

How can such intelligent, erudite people manage not to notice this 500lb. gorilla in the livingroom? Gotta admit: I’m stumped.

Could they be suffering from JUMPRS? Jewish Upwardly-Mobile Professional Radical Syndrome?. Chronic symptoms: sufferers loudly/repeatedly denounce Big Capitalist Bourgeois Plutocrats as The Class Enemy — UNLESS said BCBP’s happen to be Jewish…

Or is there an entirely different explanation? How would I know, I’m not a mind reader. But there has to be a reason.

Meanwhile, let me go see if PSL has updated its take on conditions in the “Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo”; last time I checked they were still declaiming “We Must Defend Socialist China” — LOL:))) /////////
Oct 19 2007
Dan Elliott, Sactomato ///

( PS “for your reference” ? piece does contain some good pts. –de):
http://www.pslweb.org/ News and Analysis: “For Palestinians, resistance is a matter of survival” Tues, Oct 2, 2007 By Saul Kanowitz SNIP

Murder rate greater than birth rate = genocide

Where do you get this stuff?

johnnie,
Good questions. This is a book review. If you want specificity, then buy the book which comes with footnotes.
Anyway, hard facts can be had on the internet.

“…In the shelter, people are talking in Arabic, Russian and Hebrew….Everybody’s a target,” Kanboura says, laughing at the thought that Haifa’s Jews might resent their Arab neighbors for the Hezbollah strikes. “A rocket cannot tell the difference between a Jew, an Arab and a Christian.”

“No one has anything against the Arabs” who make up about 10 percent of Haifa’s population “or the Arabs in Lebanon — only against Hezbollah,” says Moshe Batish, 52……”

“… antipathy of some Jews to Palestinians which drives the genocide in historical Palestine….. Zionism gives rise to a two-tiered state featuring Jews-only bomb shelters.

OK been here done that. The Palestinian population has actually GROWN very substantially in the last several years. There’s no genocide in Palestine. There are some Palestinians, notably Hamas adherents who would like to commit genocide against their neighbors, (see the Hamas Charter) but thankfully that kind of bloodbath hasn’t happened yet.

Jews only bomb shelters? Maybe in Sderot where they are under daily missile bombardment by ” Hamas Peace acivists” in Gaza. During the Lebanon war last summer, Jews and Arabs shared shelters in Haifa during Hezbollah missile attacks. You remember the missiles they used? Filled with metal scraps and ball bearings? For peaceful purposes only too…

See here.