Uri Avnery: Who's the dog? Who's the tail?

[question everything]

Uri Avnery

Who's the dog? Who's the tail?

22-4-06


(snip)


I COULD tell some more stories like these, but the point is made. I recount them only in connection with the scandal recently caused by two American professors, Stephen Walt of Harvard and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago. They published a research paper on the influence of the Israel lobby in the United States. In 80 pages, 40 of them footnotes and sources, the two show how the pro-Israel lobby exercises unbridled power in the US capital, how it terrorizes the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, how the White House dances to its tune (if indeed a house can dance), how the important media obey its orders and how the universities, too, live in fear of it. The paper caused a storm. And I don't mean the predictable wild attacks by the "friends of Israel" - which means almost all politicians, journalists and professors. These pelted the authors with all the usual accusations: that they were anti-Semites, that they were resurrecting the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and so forth. There was something paradoxical in these attacks, since they only illustrated the authors' case.

(snip)


The question, therefore, is not whether the two professors are right in their findings. The question is what conclusions can be drawn from them. LET'S TAKE the Iraq affair. Who is the dog? Who the tail? The Israeli government prayed for this attack, which has eliminated the strategic threat posed by Iraq. America was pushed into the war by a group of Neo-Conservatives, almost all of them Jews, who had a huge influence on the White House. In the past, some of them had acted as advisers to Binyamin Netanyahu. On the face of it, a clear case. The pro-Israeli lobby pushed for the war, Israel is its main beneficiary. If the war ends in a disaster for America, Israel will undoubtedly be blamed.

Really? What about the American aim of getting their hands on the main oil reserves of the world, in order to dominate the world economy? What about the aim of placing an American garrison in the center of the main oil-producing area, on top of the Iraqi oil, between the oil of Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Caspian Sea? What about the immense influence of the big oil companies on the Bush family? What about the big multinational corporations, whose outstanding representative is Dick Cheney, that hoped to make hundreds of billions from the "reconstruction of Iraq"?

The lesson of the Iraq affair is that the American-Israeli connection is strongest when it seems that American interests and Israeli Interests are one (irrespective of whether that is really the case in the long run). The US uses Israel to dominate the Middle East, Israel uses the US to dominate Palestine. But if something exceptional happens, such as the Jonathan Pollard espionage affair or the sale of an Israeli spy plane to China, and a gap opens between the interests of the two sides, America is quite capable of slapping Israel in the face.

AMERICAN-ISRAELI relations are indeed unique. It seems that they have no precedent in history. It is as if King Herod had given orders to Augustus Caesar and appointed the members of the Roman senate. I don't think that this phenomenon can be wholly explained by economic interests. Even the most orthodox Marxist must recognize that it also has a spiritual dimension. It is no accident that American (as well as British) fundamentalist Christians invented the Zionist idea well before Theodor Herzl hit upon it. The evangelical lobby is no less important in today's Washington than the Zionist one. According to its ideology, the Jews must take possession of all the Holy Land in order to make the Second Coming of Christ possible (and then - the part they don't shout about - some Jews will become Christians and the rest will be annihilated at Armaggedon, today's Meggido in Northern Israel).

(snip)

The dog wags the tail and the tail wags the dog. They wag each other.

http://www.avnery-news.co.il/english/index.html

[Coastie for Truth]

1. A paragraph that you reprinted - but that is KEY

Really? What about the American aim of getting their hands on the main oil reserves of the world, in order to dominate the world economy? What about the aim of placing an American garrison in the center of the main oil-producing area, on top of the Iraqi oil, between the oil of Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Caspian Sea? What about the immense influence of the big oil companies on the Bush family? What about the big multinational corporations, whose outstanding representative is Dick Cheney, that hoped to make hundreds of billions from the "reconstruction of Iraq"?

And, as usual, I refer one and all to;

* F. William Engdahl, "A Century Of War : Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order"

* Matthew Simmons, "Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy"

* Kenneth Deffeyes, "Beyond Oil : The View from Hubbert's Peak"

* Kenneth Deffeyes, "Hubbert's Peak : The Impending World Oil Shortage"

* Michael Klare, "Blood and Oil : The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum"

* Michael Klare, "Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict"

* James Howard Kunstler, "The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century"

* Anthony Evans, "An Introduction to Economic Geology and Its Environmental Impact"

and, oh yes

* Project for a New American Century, ""

and, but of course, my blog

Go back to the excerpt from Avnery in this post - the single paragraph which I regard as key. (And Avnery has gravitas and credibility)

And Uri is a friend of mine --->
<>
- I wear his logo as a lapel pin.

[Kagemusha]

2. Uri did a great job with this. Very reasoned view of the matter.

Credit where credit's so overwhelmingly due here.

[question everything]

3. This is what I thought

He is a known peace activists and a leftist who could put many here to shame. So when he writes something like that, I thought it was worth noting.

(And I clicked on his biography... the man is 83 years old! and still going strong)