It’s a rite of passage, all presidential candidates pass through Israel. Mostly it’s about money,” says Dr. Norman Finkelstein.
“They bought the executive branch. They bought the legislative branch. The people of the US don’t have true representation when it comes to their values versus the Pro Israel lobby,” says Cynthia McKinney, a former Congresswoman and Presidential candidate.
“The policies they inflict on America are deeply damaging to our national interests. It is just that, right now, AIPAC is part of an infinitely larger problem: a thoroughly corrupted political system,” wrote MJ Rosenberg.
How true are the above statements? According to some political insiders, more than one-third of contributions to the Republican and Democrat parties come from the Jewish groups and individuals on the condition that the lawmakers will look after the interests of Israel over the US interests. This is later accomplished by surrounding the President with Jewish and Zionist individuals blessed by the Israel Lobby (AIPAC). The list of such ‘Israel-Firsters’ around Barack Obama can be found here.
But then, it would be an act of anti-Semitism, if you believe the above and what Jerusalem-born Chancellor Professor Naseer Aruri 77 (University of Massachusetts) and author of several books on Israel-Palestinian conflict said recently in an interview he gave to young Iranian journaist Kourosh Ziabari.
Naseer Aruri believes that Jewish lobby groups carry terrifying influence over America’s foreign policy especially concerning Palestine. They use money and character assassination to blackmail American lawmakers, journalists and anyone who dare to criticize Israel in public.
“The sources of Zionist power in the US stem from superior organization, good finance, a ready-made “defense” of their cause such as “anti-Semitism,” which serves as a sort of black-mail and a barrier against valid criticism of policies. While the public can criticize Obama and his policy and expect no retribution, that same public cannot criticize Israel in the same way. Look at what happened to Helen Thomas, the dean of the White House journalists since the 1950s when she dared to express her opinion on the Israeli theft of Palestinian land, ongoing since the 1940s. Senators and Congress people have been dumped by the Lobby upon the first sign of dissent and deviation from the delivered wisdom and accepted orthodoxy on Israel. In short, the Zionist lobby is fortified by a shield which enables it to suppress dissent in a democratic nation, said Naseer Aruri.
Professor Naseer Aruri also believes that the so-called two-state solution for the Zionists’ occupation of Palestine is long dead – and the just and durable solution would only be a single state where native Muslims, Christian and foreign Jews can live together under equal justice and protection.
“I am afraid no just and lasting solution seems to be on the horizon at the present time. Israel and its supporters have stood firmly during the past four decades against the global consensus which demanded withdrawal from occupied territories and a just resolution of the refugees problem in accordance with UN resolutions and the general principles of international law– a resolution based on the principles of equal justice, equal protection of the law, and an end to apartheid, which now prevails throughout historic Palestine pre and post 1948. As for the two-state solution, there is no such a thing. It is already too late for that, as the entire spectrum of Israeli politics allows no sovereignty on any piece of land lying between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. That leaves one just solution: a single state in which Muslims, Christians and Jews can live together on the basis of equal justice and equal protection of the law,” said Naeer Aruri.
Uprooted Palestinian
