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The Power of Israel
in the
United States

by James Petras

Price: $16.95
ISBN: 0-932863-51-5 * 192 pp. * 2006

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REVIEWS  AUTHOR  SUMMARY  CONTENTS  ORDER

REVIEWS

"A provocative analysis of a serious problem that should be discussed and debated widely among the U.S. public, academics, and the policy establishment, this book succeeds in exposing in great detail the enormous power and influence of Israel and the Jewish Lobby in shaping U.S. policy toward the Middle East."
Berch Berberoglu, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology, University of Nevada, Reno
Author of TURMOIL IN THE MIDDLE EAST.

“Once again James Petras takes us on a fearless truth trip—with lucid style, tough factual blows, commanding research, and compelling analysis. This is an eye-opening, must-read book for every advocate of democracy and every opponent of imperialism.”
—Michael Parenti,
author of The Culture Struggle and Superpatriotism

“An outstanding analysis of the political machinery responsible for so much suffering in the Middle East: the social science equivalent of John Adam´s opera “Klinghoffer”. Brilliant and substantive”.
John Saxe-Fernandez,
Professor and Senior Researcher, Faculty of Political Science National Autonomous
University of Mexico and leading world authority on US foreign policy and the oil industry

”Jim Petras has been one of the few courageous individuals, in or outside of academia, to take a critical view of the pro-Israel lobby and its influence over US Middle East policy and to challenge the “conventional wisdom” on the part of the Left that Israel acts as a “cop on the beat” and is simply serving America’s imperial interests.”
Jeff Blankfort,
A leading Jewish authority, writer and critic in the US on the pro-Israel Lobby

“Jim Petras is one of the best informed political scientists of his generation, not given to avoiding difficult issues. Here he addresses one such, which he tackles in a characteristically challenging way.”
Tom Brass, Editor
The Journal of Peasant Studies

“Jim Petras, a man with vast expertise assembled in Latin America, takes the Leftist anti-imperialist discourse one step further, beyond safe condemnation of American imperialism.He begins where Chomsky and Zunes stop. In this book, Petras turns to the Middle East, where he discovers, through the haze of anti-Muslim polemics, assassinations and tortures, the identity of the decisive factor: that of “Jewish power shaping US policy in the Middle East against the interest of Big Oil”.

Petras’ critique of “soft Left” with its fear to alienate wealthy and influential Jewish supporters is a breath of fresh air; this critique has to be internalised if the Left wills to regain its place in society.”

Israel Shamir, Jaffa
Leading Russian-Israeli intellectual, writer, translator and journalist

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. He is the author of 62 books published in 29 languages, and over 560 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research, and Journal of Peasant Studies.  He has published over 2000 articles in nonprofessional journals such as the New York Times, the Guardian, the Nation, Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New Left Review, Partisan Review, TempsModerne, Le Monde Diplomatique, and his commentary is widely carried on the internet.   His publishers have included Random House, John Wiley, Westview, Routledge, Macmillan, Verso, Zed Books and Pluto Books. He is winner of the Life Time Career Award, Marxist Section, of the American Sociology Association, the Robert Kenny Award for Best Book, 2002, and the Best Dissertation, Western Political Science Association in 1968. His most recent titles include  Unmasking Globalization: Imperialism of the Twenty-First Century (2001); co-author The Dynamics of Social Change in Latin America (2000), System in Crisis (2003), co-author Social Movements and State Power (2003), co-author Empire With Imperialism (2005), co-author)Multinationals on Trial (2006).

He has a long history of commitment to social justice, working in particular with the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement for 11 years. In 1973-76 he was a member of the Bertrand Russell Tribunal on Repression in Latin America. He writes a monthly column for the Mexican newspaper, Le Jornada, and previously, for the Spanish daily, El Mundo. He received his B.A. from Boston University and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.

SUMMARY

This book is a chapter-by-chapter analysis and documentation of the power of Israel via the Israeli, Jewish or Pro-Zionist Lobby on US Middle East policy.  It raises serious questions as to the primary beneficiary of US policy, and its destructive results for the United States.   The extraordinary extent of US political, economic, military and diplomatic support for the state of Israel is explored, along with the means whereby such support is generated and consolidated. Contending that Zionist power in America ensured unconditional US backing for Israeli colonization of Palestine and its massive uprooting of Palestinians, it views the interests of Israel rather than those of Big Oil as the primary cause of the disastrous US wars against Iraq and threats of war against Iran and Syria.  It demonstrates and condemns US imitation of Israeli practice as it relates to conduct of the war on terrorism and torture.  It sheds light on the AIPAC spying scandal and other Israeli espionage against America; the fraudulent and complicit role of America’s academic “terrorist experts” in furthering criminal government policies, and the orchestration of the Danish cartoons to foment antipathy between Muslims and the West.  It questions the inability in America to sustain or even formulate a discourse related to the subject of Israeli influence on the United States.  It calls for a review of American Mid East policy with a view to reclaiming US independence of action based upon enlightened self-interest and progressive principles.

ISBN: 0-932863-51-5     $16.95     2006

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION / 11       

PART I: ZIONIST POWER IN AMERICA

Chapter 1.
WHO FABRICATED THE IRAQ WAR THREAT? / 19
The Jewish Lobby, Not Big Oil /21 

Chapter 2.
THE US-IRAQ-ISRAEL-ZIONIST CONNECTION / 27
Who Benefited from the Iraq War? / 27
Unanswered Question: September 11 and the Israelis / 35
Theoretical Issues / 36
Who Finances the State of Israel? / 39
        Support for Israel from the US Government / 41
        Israel Bonds / 43

Accomplices to Genocide / 45
The Zionist Power Configuration in the United States / 46
The ZPC in Action: The Iraq War / 48
Israel and the Right of Free Speech / 54         

Chapter 3. 
THE LIBBY AFFAIRE AND THE INTERNAL WAR / 61

Chapter 4. 
EXPOSING THE EXPOSÉ:  SEYMOUR HERSH
AND THE MISSING ZIONIST-ISRAELI CONNECTION / 65
The Zionists and Torture in Iraq / 67        
A Close Look at Hersh’s Method / 67
Conclusion / 71

Chapter 5. 
THE SPY TRIAL:  A POLITICAL BOMBSHELL / 73
AIPAC On Trial / 76


PART II.  ISRAEL AND MIDDLE EAST WARFARE
 
Chapter 6.
THE HOUSE OF HORRORS:
TORTURE, ASSASSINATIONS AND GENOCIDE / 82           
Empire Building / 82
Imperial Consolidation / 83
Targeted Assassinations / 84  
Destruction of Civilian and Military Infrastructure / 86
Conclusion / 90

Chapter 7. 
ISRAEL’S FINAL SOLUTION:
THE ASSAULT ON GAZA / 93
Introduction / 94
>From the Present to the Past / 95
The Final Destruction of Six Myths about the Jewish
      State and the Lobby / 96
        1.Israel and Democracy / 97
        2.Israel and Peace / 97
        3.Israel and the Possibility of a Two-State Solution / 99
        4.Israel and Terror / 99
        5.The Jewish Lobby: The Central Issue / 100  
        6.Israel and Prisoner Exchanges: The Record / 102
Mass Media Propaganda at the Service of Ethnic Cleansing / 104
Epilogue / 107

Chapter 8.
"MAD DOGS"* RAVAGE LEBANON / 110
Epilogue / 117

Chapter 9. 
ISRAEL’S WAR WITH IRAN:
THE COMING MIDEAST CONFLAGRATION / 121
Introduction / 121
Israel’s War Preparations / 121
Israel’s War Deadline / 122
US-Israeli Disagreements on an Iran War / 123
Fabrication of Iran’s Nuclear Threat / 128
Conclusion / 131

Chapter 10.
THE CARICATURES IN MIDDLE EAST POLITICS / 135
Denmark:  Center of Mossad Activity / 137
Flemming (or Flaming) Rose: Journalist with a Cause / 138
Provoking Conflict Between Muslims and the West / 138
Sayanim—Defenders of Western Civilization / 140
Mossad War Propaganda and the “Cartoon Controversy” / 140
Beyond Religious Blasphemy / 142          
Epilogue / 144

PART III. EXPERTS ON TERROR OR TERRORIST EXPERTS?
 
Chapter 11. 
EXPERTS ON TERROR:
LOOKING IN THE MIRROR / 146
The Terror Expert Genre / 147
Interrogation: Questions for the Terror Experts / 149           
Bibliography / 156

Chapter 12.
SUICIDE BOMBERS:
THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE / 157
Introduction / 157
Total War: Content and Consequences / 158
Total War and the Resistance / 159       
Degradation: The Logic of Total War / 159
The Technique of Degradation: The Larger Meaning / 160
Political Consequences of Defiling the Sacred / 161
Suicide Bombers: A Response to the Desecraters / 162
Conclusion / 163

PART IV:  DEBATES

Chapter 13. 
NOAM CHOMSKY AND THE PRO-ISRAEL LOBBY:
FIFTEEN ERRONEOUS THESES / 166
Introduction / 166
Chomsky’s Fifteen Theses / 168  
Conclusion / 178
        
Chapter 14.
CONFRONTING ZIONISM AND
RECLAIMING AMERICAN MIDDLE EAST POLICY / 180

INDEX / 186

* “Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother.”
General Moshe Dayan, Former Israeli Defense Minister


 

 

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