Unholy alliance

The annual Israeli-lobby love fest is in full swing, the highlight of which may be the sight of most of the candidates for the highest office in the land grovelling before their financial masters. The annual AIPAC (American Israel Political Affairs Committee) orgy always draws the United States president and every member of Congress worthy to be called a lackey for Israel, and their name is legion.

But during what the US calls an election year, that quadrennial event when a four-year lease for the White House is auctioned off to the highest bidder, excitement at AIPAC is at a fever pitch.

And this year, the thrill is even greater, since this is the first major meeting of this unholy lobby since the passage of the Iran agreement that moderates that nation’s nuclear ambitions, an agreement that the Israeli lobby found most unpalatable. Also, in January of next year, Israel will have a brand new president, when that odious Barack Obama, with whom Israeli Prime Murderer Benjamin Netanyahu has a most uncordial relationship, will be replaced.

It is amazing to anyone who is not besotted with Israel, anyone who recognises its constant, ongoing war crimes and violations of international law, to observe this spectacle. And what a spectacle has been brought to us thus far this year! A few gems will suffice to help the reader know what he or she is missing.

Mr Sanders also talked about the shared values between the US and Israel. He was, quite possibly, referring to racism, disdain for international law, a ‘might makes right’ attitude and other ‘values’ that the two nations share.

So that is what is being served at the AIPAC convention this year, and it is certainly a foul-tasting meal. More racism, more genocide, more apartheid, all financed and supported by the US, that bastion of liberty and freedom. Yet for the Zionist population, the words of all the candidates, with the exception of Mr Sanders, were music to their ears.

But do Mr Sanders words really represent some hope for Palestine? Well, he does seem to recognise that the concepts of human rights and self-determination do apply to them, a fact that escapes all the other presidential candidates, and that is a good sign. But talk is cheap, and the senator has a long history of supporting Israel’s periodic carpet-bombing of the Gaza Strip.

But with an election year offering the likes of Messrs Cruz and Trump, and her highness, Mrs Clinton, we should be grateful for any small favours such as those offered by Mr. Sanders.

On March 20, I attended the AIPAC convention, but only from the outside; he had no desire to join the racist Zionist hoodlums in the convention centre. He listened to the thoughtful words of Rabbi Dovid Weiss; author Miko Peled, son of a prominent Israeli general, and many others who oppose Zionism. The number of attendees was not large; certainly, it was dwarfed by the 18,000 attending the convention. But the numbers don’t tell the story; what is telling is that at least two of the major party candidates singled out BDS for mention, indicating the growing strength and effectiveness of that movement.

Criticism of Palestinian resistance, with no acknowledgement that Israeli oppression is the cause, a fact that even United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon spoke clearly of in January, falls increasingly on deaf ears in any but a Zionist audience. Time is on the side of justice; Israel and the US will not prevail against it forever.

This article has been excerpted from: ‘AIPAC, Israel and the US: an unholy alliance’.

Courtesy: Counterpunch.org