Monday, September 24, 2007

Just How Powerful is the Israel Lobby?

Only Cheney Knows for Sure

By SHERWOOD ROSS
CounterPunch

"......According to Petras, a sociologist at Binghamton University, New York, the pro-Zionist "power configuration" is not just the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee(AIPAC). The Zionist lobby is so powerful, Petras argues, it "calls the shots" and "supports the escalation of the Iraq war and the savaging of Palestine, Somalia and Afghanistan."

"It (the Lobby") has neutralized the biggest and most concerted efforts by big name centrist political figures to alter White House policy," including James Baker, (former Secretary of State under the first president Bush,) former president Carter and "protesting former military commanders" in Iraq.

Petras charges, "the White House is putting into practice the war strategy presented by the American' Enterprise Institute, which he dubs a Zioncon thinktank. Led by "arch-Zionist" Michael Ledeen a resident scholar of AEI, "some in the Jewish Lobby dismissed the Baker Iraq Study Group as the realists and anti-Semites.'" The ISG "was unable to deal with Israeli violence against Palestinians or enter into a dialogue with Syria and Iran on any but the most narrow and unpromising terms," Petras asserted......"

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