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August 22, 2002
Robert Johnson
Right Wing
Doves?
Alexander Cockburn
Taking
Down McKinney
August 21, 2002
Gary Leupp
The Return
of Mani
Romi Mahajan
Bhopal
on $40 a Day
Jerre Skog
Bush and
Europe:
Fun, Profit & Betrayal
Tom Crumpacker
The
Politics of the Cuba Embargo
August 20, 2002
Michael Neumann
The American
Left
and Palestine
William Blum
Chemical
Weapons, Iraq and the US: What the Times Left Out of the Story
Ralph Nader
The Politics
of Bankruptcy
Robert Fisk
The Two
Deaths of Abu Nidal
Philip Farruggio
Junk
School Nation
Edward Said
Disunity
and Factionalism
Kathleen Christison
Israeli
Tilt: the NYT
and Palestine
August 19, 2002
Bernard Weiner
Advance
Draft of Bush's 9/11 Anniversary Speech
Gavin Keeney
Auteur-Driven
Vehicles
Kurt Nimmo
Son of
COINTELPRO
David Krieger
Peace
Declarations from Hiroshima and Nagasaki
August 14 / 18, 2002
Susan Davis
Played
Out: a Journey to Central City, Colorado
CounterPunch Staff
Our Favorite
Films
Jeffrey St. Clair
Usonian
Utopia's:
Frank Lloyd Wright, Working Class Housing and the FBI
Gilad Atzmon
Sharon and the Iron Wall
Uri Avnery
A Phone
Call from Hell
Wendy Brinker
Racism
is Alive and Well in the South Carolina Death House
Hamit Dardagan
The
Unbearable Lightness of Bombing
Ahmad Faruqui
The Legacy
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Philip Farruggio
Leading
by Example
Anthony Gancarski
Union
Jackass: Richard Perle's UK Charm Offensive
Jeff Halper
Fortress
Israel: the Message of the Bulldozer
Robert Jensen
Our Failures
are Borne by the Palestinians
Gary Leupp
An Open
Letter to Bruce Springsteen about Bush's War on Terrorism
Dave Marsh
Sing a
Simple Song
Rashmi Mayur
To Johannesburg
in Search of Hope
Steve Perry
Another Fine Mess:
Martha Stewart and Paul Wellstone
Anis Shivani
What's
Next...Concentration Camps?
Edward Said
Punishment
by Detail
Jeff Taylor
Paul Wellstone's
Legacy
August 13, 2002
Robert Fisk
At the al--Qaeda
Cemetery
Mokhiber / Weissman
Corporate
Crime Time
Andrew Cockburn
Bono
Betrays Ireland
August 12, 2002
Messier / Dreier
The IDF
in Nablus:
Shooting at Kites;
Bulldozing Schools
Brian J. Foley
No Iraqi
Surprise: Look Now
at the Dangers of War
Fran Shor
Psychic
and Political Numbing
in Preparations for War
August 10/11, 2002
Bruce Jackson
Buffalo
in Black and White
Robert Fisk
US Bombs
Still Killing Civilians
Lawrence McGuire
How Does
Christianity Work?
Ralph Nader
The Quest
for the
Fuel Efficient Car
Frank Fugate
The Arabs
I Know
Jan Oberg
Visit Iraq
Jill Drier
Dodging
Bullets in Nablus
Walt Brasch
The Bush
2 Legacy...So Far
Poetry
M. Shahid Alam
Death by
Sanctions
Anthony Gancarski
Coin of the Realm
David Krieger
Einstein's
Regret
August 9, 2002
Robert Fisk
Gul Agha:
the UN's Warlord of the Year
Nelson P. Valdés
An Open
Letter to Bush
on Cuba Policy
Mokhiber / Weissman
Corporate
Crime:
More Shareholder Power
Not the Solution
Ansar Ahmed
The Waning
of the
Pax Americana
Alexander Cockburn
War,
the Military and the Hunt for the "Violence Gene"
August 8, 2002
Ron Jacobs
Iraq:
The Final Storm?
Dave Marsh
Now Ain't
the Time
for Your Tears
Mark Weisbrot
Bush
Administration Tries to Hide Role in Venezuela Coup
Anthony Gancarski
AIPAC,
Congress and Iraq
Robert Fisk
Families
of the Disappeared Demand Answers
Gary Leupp
Karzai's
Bodyguard
Resources:
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About 9/11
CounterPunch:
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Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
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and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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Reviews of Gore:
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August
22, 2002
The Zionist
Lobby and American Foreign Policy
by
Gilad Atzmon
In the last weeks there have been some very serious
rumours, probably originated in Israel, claiming that George
W. Bush's latest speech concerning the need for 'Palestinian
reforms' was sent to Jerusalem for final proofing and corrections
not less than twenty-eight times. Whether this is the case, whether
it was twenty-eight times or just seven, whether it was physically
corrected in Jerusalem or just followed some guidelines that
were drawn by the Jewish lobby in Washington, is not the real
issue anymore. It is more than clear that the American administration
is completely biased when it comes to the Israeli-Arab conflict.
This very one-sided approach should be scrutinised.
These days when American policy makers
endorse far right nationalistic views, the US administration
reveals itself voluntarily as a major enemy of world peace, and
the American president is searching desperately for new allies
to form a coalition to support his phony 'war against terror',
it is hardly surprising to discover that the Jewish state and
Zionists lobbies are fairly active behind the scenes. It all
makes far more sense when you find out that America's current
divorce from  humanism
is closely associated with Israeli interests. A brief study of
the history of Israel will reveal that from its very early days
Zionism specialised in tracing dark political motivations and
interests in order to abuse them to the very limit. Zionism is
a very singular political method aimed at perfecting the transformation
of world disasters and human pain into Jewish gain.
Already in the first Zionist congress,
in Basel (1897), Herzl, the first and most famous Jewish Zionist,
illustrated this method. According to Herzl, Zionism could promise
redemption for the Jewish people as long as it fit into a larger
colonial agenda of any of the greater colonial superpowers. Herzl
himself travelled between the European political centres, promising
full collaboration and support from the Jewish people in exchange
for land in which to locate the Jewish state. This very basic
motivation to associate with the world superpowers is an evident
factor throughout the history of Zionism. Somehow, Zionists always
volunteer to serve the colonial interests of any leading power.
This fundamental tendency to join forces with superpowers led
to an internal debate within the Zionist movement concerning
the independence of the whole Zionist adventure. Since Zionism
religiously presents itself as a devoted servant of larger colonial
forces, it is not clear whether Zionism can possess any sense
of autonomy.
After the creation of the state of Israel
this very question turned into a political debate. Since the
Zionist movement insisted on presenting the world with the Idea
of a Jewish sovereign state, it is clear that many of the most
crucial developments in the history of Israel and Zionism were
influenced by major global changes. Since Israel associates its
fate with major dominating forces there is a growing concern
among Zionist politicians regarding the independence and the
autonomy of Israeli decision-making. Those concerns are well
justified. Throughout the history of Israel we can detect different
cases of obvious conflict between Israel and its source of colonial
hegemony.
From time to time, Israel fails to comply
with its supporting superpower. These kinds of conflicts led
to the divorce from the British Empire (1947) and from the French
hegemony (before the '67 war). Moreover, more than once Israel
got itself into face to face conflicts with the US. Until now
it has been Israel that had to bow and eventually to accept American
views. Somehow, this time it looks a bit different. For the very
first time it looks as if it is America, the world supreme superpower,
that should be concerned. This time it is America that is about
to lose its sovereignty. Now, it looks as if Zionist lobbies
control American foreign politics. After so many years of independence,
the United States of America is becoming a remote colony of an
apparently far greater state, the Jewish state. Yes Israel, a
very small place in the eastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea.
If you try to look for it on your globe at home you will probably
need a magnifying glass.
The idea that Zionists have taken over
America might sound bizarre in the first instance but we must
remember that this kind of strange scenario does happen. Last
month I heard Israel Shamir's observation regarding this very
issue. In a very open manner he said that no one would be surprised
to hear that during different phases of the British Empire the
world was governed by a very close group of 'Eton' graduates.
"Some times" he added, "great empires are taken
over by very marginal groups". We might have to acknowledge
that this is the case with America. American foreign policy is
dictated by a very marginal group of Zionist activists, even
by the state of Israel itself. Good news for Israel, quite an
amazing achievement for a microscopic state. But is it good news
for the American people? Is it good news for the world?
The history of Zionism provides us with
manifold stories of great empires that were misled in believing
that coalition with the Jewish state will serve their own interests.
In the long run those decisions proved to be unreasonable, irrational
and even disastrous. The most famous one is probably the 'Balfour
Declaration' (1917). It was in the midst of WW1 when the British
foreign minister announced the empire's support for turning Palestine
into the "national home for the Jewish people". At
the time there were less than 60.000 Jews in Palestine leaving
peacefully among a total population of 600.000 Arabs.
What led the British Empire to such a
strange declaration? What led the world leading superpower at
the time to commit itself to such an unreasonable affair based
on support from a marginal ethnic group (less than 10% of the
entire population)?
If there had been some deep colonial
strategic or any other rational thought behind 'Balfour's declaration'
they proved to be very misleading. Soon Jews flood into Palestine.
Native Arab Palestinians start to show their severe dissatisfaction.
Conflict becomes inevitable. When Britain tried to repair Balfour's
damage it was too late ('The White Paper' 1939). The Jewish right
wing terrorist and paramilitary resistance were about to teach
the mandate forces a lesson in Yiddisher brutality. From a British
point of view, the alliance with Zionism turned into a disaster.
It was 2 years after the 2nd WW when the Zionist pushed the British
colonial forces out of the region. A very similar pattern of
unfortunate thought led both decaying empires Britain and France
to join forces with Israel in the Suez operation (1956).
Following Nasser's nationalisation of
the 'Suez Canal Company' both France and Britain were looking
for a military operation that would retrieve control over the
Suez to the west. Clearly, Israel wasn't a part of this conflict
but as an 'obedient servant' of colonial western thought Israel
as usual offered its military assistance for any imperial aggression.
As long as the aggressor promises to inflict pain over its Arab
neighbours. The Suez Operation was launched with an IDF operation
on 29 October. Two days later both Britain and France joined
the party. The operation provoked an outraged American response
to the aggressive coalition. On November 9th, less than ten days
after the operation had started, Israel bowed to American pressure
and announced its immediate withdraw from Sinai desert. For Britain
and France this unsuccessful affair symbolised the end of their
colonial era. More than anything else the Suez Operation indicated
the loss of European influence in the region. Again, from a colonial
point of view, the association with Zionism was counter-productive.
The Europeans learnt their lesson; they
became very suspicious of Zionist political affairs. At the same
time we have to admit that the Americans have not yet learned
theirs. The American people have not yet seen that a coalition
with Israel puts their life at great risk. The American people
fail to associate September 11th and the hopeless American support
of Zionism. I assume the reason the American people fail to acknowledge
such a straightforward connection can only be due to the fact
that Zionist lobbies have managed to comprehensively dominate
the major sources that control American public opinion: both
in culture, in media and in finance. Ted Turner the owner of
CNN, the world's leading TV news network had to go out of his
way to persuade the Zionist lobbies that he was in a mental state
when he 'mistakenly' referred to Israel as a "terrorist
state". It is very apparent that Israel enjoys full protection
in the American media. The question to be asked is who is going
to protect the Americans from their motherland Israel?
While the American people take their
time to answer this crucial question we can stretch our intellectual
faculties by contemplating the following questions. How is it
that the great American nation, the world's leading superpower,
has become dominated by a narrow lobby from a miniature foreign
state? Do the American and the Israelis really share the same
interests? And if they do can someone enlighten us as to what
those interests are? Are the American people aware of the fact
that their becoming a direct target of Islamic terror is of prior
interest to Israel?
On reflection, it must be terrifying
that such a small lobby from a tiny state is so eager to push
the rest of the world into endless confrontation.
Do we really need all this?
Gilad Atzmon is the top selling jazz musician in the UK.
His group is the Orient House Ensemble. He is also the author
of a novel, Guide to the Perplexed, just published in Israel
to great acclaim. It will be available in English (published
in UK by Serpent's Tail, and distributed in the USA by them)
from October 17th 2002.
Today's Features
Robert Johnson
Right Wing
Doves?
Alexander Cockburn
Taking
Down Cynthia McKinney
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