One of the most controversial topics in the United
States today is the nature and extent of
Jewish-Zionist influence on policy. Mainstream
American writers, even many so-called Marxist writers
(who would be better characterized as common
liberals), prefer to ignore the specific role of Jews
in policy making. Their discourse, often ironically
called "politically correct," sidesteps the Jewish
issue lest they be accused of anti-semitism. As a
result, Zionist Jewish groups function with hardly any
public attention or scrutiny.
For many years the Institute for Historical Review has
been an exception to this trend. Here in a new
pamphlet they take a straight look at America's
powerful Jewish lobby, citing many useful references,
a lot of them from works by American Jews themselves.
Of course, we don't want to imply that US Middle East
policy is solely motivated by the Jewish lobby. The
imperial role of monopoly capital -- both Jewish and
non-Jewish -- must all be taken into account. In
addition, we cannot endorse the criminalization of
Stalin and Mao Zedong that is alluded to at one point
in the IHR article. Nevertheless, as a bold look at
the role of the specifically Jewish pressure groups
and power centers in America, FAV believes that this
article will prove useful to our readers.
A LOOK AT THE `POWERFUL JEWISH LOBBY'
=====================================
By Mark Weber
http://www.ihr.org/leaflets/jewishlobby.html
For decades Israel has violated well established precepts of
international law and defied numerous United Nations resolutions in its
occupation of conquered lands, in extra-judicial killings, and in its
repeated acts of military aggression. Most of the world regards Israel's
policies, and especially its oppression of Palestinians, as outrageous
and criminal. This international consensus is reflected, for example, in
numerous UN resolutions condemning Israel, which have been approved with
overwhelming majorities.
"The whole world," United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan recently
said, "is demanding that Israel withdraw [from occupied Palestinian
territories]. I don't think the whole world... can be wrong." / 1 Only
in the United States do politicians and the media still fervently
support Israel and its policies. For decades the US has provided Israel
with crucial military, diplomatic and financial backing, including more
than $3 billion each year in aid.
Why is the US the only remaining bastion of support for Israel?
Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, who was awarded the 1984 Nobel
Peace Prize, has candidly identified the reason: "The Israeli government
is placed on a pedestal [in the US], and to criticize it is to be
immediately dubbed anti-Semitic," he said. "People are scared in this
country, to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful -
very powerful." / 2
Bishop Tutu spoke the truth. Although Jews make up only about three
percent of the US population, they wield immense power and influence --
vastly more than any other ethnic or religious group.
As Jewish author and political science professor Benjamin Ginsberg has
pointed out: / 3
>>
Since the 1960s, Jews have come to wield considerable influence in
American economic, cultural, intellectual and political life. Jews
played a central role in American finance during the 1980s, and they
were among the chief beneficiaries of that decade's corporate mergers
and reorganizations. Today, though barely two percent of the nation's
population is Jewish, close to half its billionaires are Jews. The chief
executive officers of the three major television networks and the four
largest film studios are Jews, as are the owners of the nation's largest
newspaper chain and the most influential single newspaper, the New York
Times... The role and influence of Jews in American politics is equally
marked...
Jews are only three percent of the nation's population and comprise
eleven percent of what this study defines as the nation's elite.
However, Jews constitute more than 25 percent of the elite journalists
and publishers, more than 17 percent of the leaders of important
voluntary and public interest organizations, and more than 15 percent of
the top ranking civil servants. <<
Stephen Steinlight, former Director of National Affairs of the American
Jewish Committee, similarly notes the "disproportionate political power"
of Jews, which is "pound for pound the greatest of any ethnic/cultural
group in America." He goes on to explain that "Jewish economic influence
and power are disproportionately concentrated in Hollywood, television,
and in the news industry." / 4
Two well-known Jewish writers, Seymour Lipset and Earl Raab, pointed out
in their 1995 book, Jews and the New American Scene: / 5
>>
During the last three decades Jews [in the United States] have made up
50 percent of the top two hundred intellectuals... 20 percent of
professors at the leading universities ... 40 percent of partners in the
leading law firms in New York and Washington ... 59 percent of the
directors, writers, and producers of the 50 top-grossing motion pictures
from 1965 to 1982, and 58 percent of directors, writers, and producers
in two or more primetime television series. <<
The influence of American Jewry in Washington, notes the Israeli daily
Jerusalem Post, is "far disproportionate to the size of the community,
Jewish leaders and US official acknowledge. But so is the amount of
money they contribute to [election] campaigns." One member of the
influential Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations "estimated Jews alone had contributed 50 percent of the
funds for [President Bill] Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign." / 6
"It makes no sense at all to try to deny the reality of Jewish power and
prominence in popular culture," acknowledges Michael Medved, a
well-known Jewish author and film critic. "Any list of the most
influential production executives at each of the major movie studios
will produce a heavy majority of recognizably Jewish names." / 7
One person who has carefully studied this subject is Jonathan J.
Goldberg, now editor of the influential Jewish community weekly Forward.
In his 1996 book, Jewish Power, he wrote: / 8
>>
In a few key sectors of the media, notably among Hollywood studio
executives, Jews are so numerically dominant that calling these
businesses Jewish-controlled is little more than a statistical
observation...
Hollywood at the end of the twentieth century is still an industry with
a pronounced ethnic tinge. Virtually all the senior executives at the
major studios are Jews. Writers, producers, and to a lesser degree
directors are disproportionately Jewish -- one recent study showed the
figure as high as 59 percent among top-grossing films.
The combined weight of so many Jews in one of America's most lucrative
and important industries gives the Jews of Hollywood a great deal of
political power. They are a major source of money for Democratic
candidates. <<
Reflecting their role in the American media, Jews are routinely
portrayed as high-minded, altruistic, trustworthy, compassionate, and
deserving of sympathy and support. While millions of Americans readily
accept such stereotyped imagery, not everyone is impressed. "I am very
angry with some of the Jews," complained actor Marlon Brando during a
1996 interview. "They know perfectly well what their responsibilities
are... Hollywood is run by Jews. It's owned by Jews, and they should
have a greater sensitivity about the issue of people who are suffering."
/ 9
A Well-Entrenched Factor
The intimidating power of the "Jewish lobby" is not a new phenomenon,
but has long been an important factor in American life.
In 1941 Charles Lindbergh spoke about the danger of Jewish power in the
media and government. The shy 39-year-old -- known around the world for
his epic 1927 New York to Paris flight, the first solo trans-Atlantic
crossing -- was addressing 7,000 people in Des Moines, Iowa, on
September 11, 1941, about the dangers of US involvement in the war then
raging in Europe. The three most important groups pressing America into
war, he explained, were the British, the Jews, and the Roosevelt
administration.
Of the Jews, he said: "Their greatest danger to this country lies in
their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press,
our radio, and our government." Lindbergh went on:
>>
...For reasons which are understandable from their viewpoint as they are
inadvisable from ours, for reasons which are not American, [they] wish
to involve us in the war. We cannot blame them for looking out for what
they believe to be their own interests, but we must also look out for
ours. We cannot allow the natural passions and prejudices of other
peoples to lead our country to destruction. <<
In 1978, Jewish American scholar Alfred M. Lilienthal wrote in his
detailed study, The Zionist Connection: / 10
>>
How has the Zionist will been imposed on the American people?... It is
the Jewish connection, the tribal solidarity among themselves and the
amazing pull on non-Jews, that has molded this unprecedented power... In
the larger metropolitan areas, the Jewish-Zionist connection thoroughly
pervades affluent financial, commercial, social, entertainment, and art
circles. <<
As a result of the Jewish grip on the media, wrote Lilienthal, news
coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict in American television,
newspapers and magazines is relentlessly sympathetic to Israel. This is
manifest, for example, in the misleading portrayal of Palestinian
"terrorism." As Lilienthal put it: "One-sided reportage on terrorism, in
which cause is never related to effect, was assured because the most
effective component of the Jewish connection is probably that of media
control."
One-Sided "Holocaust" History
The Jewish hold on cultural and academic life has had a profound impact
on how Americans look at the past. Nowhere is the well entrenched
Judeocentric view of history more obvious than in the "Holocaust" media
campaign, which focuses on the fate of Jews in Europe during World War
II.
Israeli Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer, a professor at Hebrew
University in Jerusalem, has remarked: / 11
>>
Whether presented authentically or inauthentically, in accordance with
the historical facts or in contradiction to them, with empathy and
understanding or as monumental kitsch, the Holocaust has become a ruling
symbol of our culture... Hardly a month goes by without a new TV
production, a new film, a new drama, new books, prose or poetry, dealing
with the subject, and the flood is increasing rather than abating. <<
Non-Jewish suffering simply does not merit comparable attention.
Overshadowed in the focus on Jewish victimization are, for example, the
tens of millions of victims of America's World War II ally, Stalinist
Russia, along with the tens of millions of victims of China's Maoist
regime, as well as the 12 to 14 million Germans, victims of the flight
and expulsion of 1944-1949, of whom some two million lost their lives.
The well-financed Holocaust media and "educational" campaign is
crucially important to the interests of Israel. Paula Hyman, a professor
of modern Jewish history at Yale University, has observed: / 12
>>
With regard to Israel, the Holocaust may be used to forestall political
criticism and suppress debate; it reinforces the sense of Jews as an
eternally beleaguered people who can rely for their defense only upon
themselves. The invocation of the suffering endured by the Jews under
the Nazis often takes the place of rational argument, and is expected to
convince doubters of the legitimacy of current Israeli government
policy. <<
Norman Finkelstein, a Jewish scholar who has taught political science at
City University of New York (Hunter College), says in his book, The
Holocaust Industry, that "invoking The Holocaust" is "a ploy to
delegitimize all criticism of Jews." / 13 "By conferring total
blamelessness on Jews, the Holocaust dogma immunizes Israel and American
Jewry from legitimate censure... Organized Jewry has exploited the Nazi
holocaust to deflect criticism of Israel's and its own morally
indefensible policies." He writes of the brazen "shakedown" of Germany,
Switzerland and other countries by Israel and organized Jewry "to extort
billions of dollars." "The Holocaust," Finkelstein predicts, "may yet
turn out to be the 'greatest robbery in the history of mankind'."
Jews in Israel feel free to act brutally against Arabs, writes Israeli
journalist Ari Shavit, "believing with absolute certitude that now, with
the White House, the Senate and much of the American media in our hands,
the lives of others do not count as much as our own." / 14
Admiral Thomas Moorer, former Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff,
has spoken with blunt exasperation about the Jewish-Israeli hold on the
United States: / 15
>>
I've never seen a President -- I don't care who he is -- stand up to
them [the Israelis]. It just boggles the mind. They always get what they
want. The Israelis know what is going on all the time. I got to the
point where I wasn't writing anything down. If the American people
understood what a grip those people have got on our government, they
would rise up in arms. Our citizens certainly don't have any idea what
goes on. <<
Today the danger is greater than ever. Israel and Jewish organizations,
in collaboration with this country's pro-Zionist "amen corner," are
prodding the United States -- the world's foremost military and economic
power -- into new wars against Israel's enemies. As the French
ambassador in London recently acknowledged, Israel -- which he called
"that shitty little country" -- is a threat to world peace. "Why should
the world be in danger of World War III because of those people?," he
said. / 16
To sum up: Jews wield immense power and influence in the United States.
The "Jewish lobby" is a decisive factor in US support for Israel.
Jewish-Zionist interests are not identical to American interests. In
fact, they often conflict.
As long as the "very powerful" Jewish lobby remains entrenched, there
will be no end to the systematic Jewish distortion of current affairs
and history, the Jewish-Zionist domination of the US political system,
Zionist oppression of Palestinians, the bloody conflict between Jews and
non-Jews in the Middle East, and the Israeli threat to peace.
-----------------------------------
Notes
1. Quoted in Forward (New York City), April 19, 2002, p. 11.
2. D. Tutu, "Apartheid in the Holy Land," The Guardian (Britain), April
29, 2002. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4403427,00.html
3. Benjamin Ginsberg, The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State (University
of Chicago, 1993), pp. 1, 103.
4. S. Steinlight, "The Jewish Stake in America's Changing Demography:
Reconsidering a Misguided Immigration Policy," Center for Immigration
Studies, Nov. 2001. http://www.cis.org/articles/2001/back1301.html
5. Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab, Jews and the New American Scene
(Harvard Univ. Press, 1995), pp. 26-27.
6. Janine Zacharia, "The Unofficial Ambassadors of the Jewish State,"
The Jerusalem Post (Israel), April 2, 2000. Reprinted in "Other Voices,"
June 2000, p. OV-4, a supplement to The Washington Report on Middle East
Affairs.
7. M. Medved, "Is Hollywood Too Jewish?," Moment, Vol. 21, No. 4 (1996),
p. 37.
8. Jonathan Jeremy Goldberg, Jewish Power: Inside the American Jewish
Establishment (Addison-Wesley, 1996), pp. 280, 287-288. See also pp.
39-40, 290-291.
9. Interview with Larry King, CNN network, April 5, 1996. "Brando
Remarks," Los Angeles Times, April 8, 1996, p. F4 (OC). A short time
later, Brando was obliged to apologize for his remarks.
10. A. Lilienthal, The Zionist Connection (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1978),
pp. 206, 218, 219, 229.
11. From a 1992 lecture, published in: David Cesarani, ed., The Final
Solution: Origins and Implementation (London and New York: Routledge,
1994), pp. 305, 306.
12. Paula E. Hyman, "New Debate on the Holocaust," The New York Times
Magazine, Sept. 14, 1980, p. 79.
13. Norman G. Finkelstein, The Holocaust Industry (London, New York:
Verso, 2000), pp. 130, 138, 139, 149.
14. The New York Times, May 27, 1996. Shavit is identified as a
columnist for Ha'aretz, a Hebrew-language Israeli daily newspaper, "from
which this article is adapted."
15. Interview with Moorer, Aug. 24, 1983. Quoted in: Paul Findley, They
Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel's Lobby
(Lawrence Hill, 1984 and 1985), p. 161.
16. D. Davis, "French Envoy to UK: Israel Threatens World Peace,"
Jerusalem Post, Dec. 20, 2001. The French ambassador is Daniel Bernard.
-------------------------------------
Mark Weber (weber@ihr.org) is director of the Institute for Historical
Review (http://www.ihr.org/index.html). He studied history at the
University of Illinois (Chicago), the University of Munich, Portland
State University and Indiana University (M.A., 1977). For nine years he
served as editor of the IHR's Journal of Historical Review.
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