The Power of Israel in the United States
Author: James Petras
2006/2007
Clarity Press, Inc.
USA
ISBN: 0-932863-51-5
Fernwood Books
Canada
ISBN: 1-55266-215-2
Reviewer
Dr. Ahmed El-Meadawy
27 July 2009
The author is a Bartle Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York and the author of 62 books published in 29 languages. Professor Petras has shown knowledge and courage as he uncovered what the rulers of the so called western free democratic world do not want you to know about their corruption and the corruption of their entire political system. He seems to belong to those few free incorruptible most respectful minds.
He reveals the fact that the territorial Israeli state has little power of persuasion, economic reach, or military clout in comparison to the major powers such as the USA and Europe. The power of Israel is based on that of the Diaspora, highly structured and politically and economically powerful Jewish networks which have direct and indirect access to the centers of power and propaganda in the most powerful imperialist country in the World. Tribute (unconditional material and diplomatic support) is extracted via the influence these “internal colonialists” who operate at the level of mass media opinion makers and via Congress and the Presidency. Israel’s hegemonic position over the US has endured under both Democratic and Republican presidencies for over half a century. While the Jews in the USA are minority in every sector of the society and economy (2% of the total population), their disproportionate power and influence stems from the fact that they function collectively; they are organized, active, and concentrate on a single issue: unconditional American support for Israel. Operating from their strategic positions in the power structure, they are able to influence policy and censor any dissident commentators or views from circulating freely in the communication and political system. The US Government borrows money with interest ($50-$60 million annually) to pay the annual tribute to the Jewish state (more than $4.3 billion annually).
The Power of Israel in the United States has, also, uncovered how the democratic system functions, and how corrupt it is. It is not an implementation of the will of the people, but the will of money and interest groups. Corruption is a main attribute of democracy.
In addition, the respectful courageous author has uncovered the savageness of both the USA and its little Israeli master in imposing their separate individual imperial colonial plans on nations of the World. From1964-1990, the US imperial policy in South, Central America, and Caribbean caused the slaughter of 500,000 people by client military regimes. From 1970 through to the 1990’s, massive US military intervention and support of “surrogate” mercenaries aided by US strategic ally, South Africa, killed millions in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, and Congo, destroying the economic and political basis for development and establishing client regimes. The American imperial policy in Asia has caused the death of 11 million Koreans, Indochinese, Filipinos, Indonesians, and Timorese. To sustain power in the face of mass anti-imperial resistance, the US state has repeatedly violated all international conventions and laws related to torture of prisoners, mass killings of civilians, destruction of infrastructure and historical sites, pillaging of natural resources, and establishment of client colonial states and imperial-centered economics. The model of rule via mass torture and sexual violence has been heavily influenced by the Israeli experience, where nearly half of the male Palestinian population has been incarcerated and subjected to “legalized” Israeli torture. Following the Israeli Mossad policy of “selective assassinations” of suspects, the US uses international death squads of the US imperial terror network. In the case of occupying Iraq and treating its local population, the US imitated the Israeli policy toward the Palestinians. Israel’s practice of sexual humiliation of Palestinians and Lebanese (rapes, stripping, and hooding of prisoners) has been a routine. Collective punishment and taking family members hostage are legally condoned and extensively practiced in Israel despite their prohibition in international law.
Professor Petras concludes that the overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews are knowingly and willingly accomplices to Israel crimes against humanity, since Israel is generally considered a democracy limited to its Jewish citizens.
The author uncovers the Euro-American and Israeli manipulative propaganda naming the resistance of the victims to invasion, colonization, and imperialist aggression “terrorism”. He explains that suicide bombers have lost everything a human being can loose and try to implement a minimum mass of justice with the last resource they own, their lives. That propaganda is financed by paymasters to the propaganda tools of bribed experts (mercenaries), who present the victims as sub-humans, and condemn the most abused victims in the name of the most vicious powers. The Anglo-American and pro-Israeli experts pathologically ignore (hide) the monstrous crimes committed against the essential values and beliefs of the oppressed. “The torturers defecated and urinated on the Qur’an. They stomped on the Qur’an with muddy army boots. They flushed pages, held most sacred by the victims, down the toilet. They violated the most sacred single source of moral life”. “The suicide bomber(s) believe that only by reversing the violence, bringing it ‘home’ to the invaders, will they redeem and reassert the ascendancy of what has been defiled––the Sacred––by responding in kind…”. “When tanks roll into Iraqi neighborhoods after shelling homes and mosques, is it any wonder that furious neighbors swarm around an ambushed tank and dance on the shards of smoking metal and corpses? Is it a frightful spectacle of pitiless terrorists or jubilant neighbors, who have silenced the sound of shells bursting over their heads and into their neighbors’ homes?” Mr. Petras depicted how the Israeli Anglo-American agents torture their victims––they call terrorists––giving them the reason to become freedom fighters and suicide bombers. That torture has lifetime destructive psychological consequences. Its message relayed to millions that nothing is sacred––everything and everybody is equally an acceptable instrument for conquest, domination, and control.
Mr. Petras, surprisingly, has not discussed the strong possibility that the US government in collaboration with its Israeli master has planned and conducted, or at least knew about and allowed the 9/11 attacks on New York and the American Capital.
