“People fighting for change, wherever they are, know that Israel very likely enables their oppressors.”
This statement from the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, [WRMEA, March/April 2024], summarises world experience.
Public opinion in the US is changing, despite the millions of dollars spent by the Israeli lobby.
“Years from now, social historians may think of Oct 7, 2023 as the beginning of a US popular movement against oppressive and manipulative domestic forces, like AIPAC ….” [WRMEA]
Even corporate media warns Biden could lose Michigan for supporting Netanyahu and that would cost him office. [NYT, 24 February 2023]
Buying support
The debate around the Gaza massacre has highlighted the Israeli focus upon the elite, the decision makers and the corporate media.
As of 2021, around 35 states have passed bills and executive orders designed to discourage boycotts of Israel.
In 2018, shortly after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won New York’s 14th Congressional District, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) offered her an unsolicited donation of $100,000.
She declined and has become one of the few voices in Congress defending Palestinians.
“In 2022, AIPAC spent $30 million targeting progressive Democrats.”[Newsletter The Intercept, 24 February 2024]
Fear of such targeting silences many representatives.
After 7 October the monthly donations to AIPAC went from about $12 million a month to $40 million in October then another $50 million in the last two months of the year. [Forward News, 6 February 2024]
Members of Congress who supported the Israeli assault on Gaza received donations of $125,000 on average but those who expressed more pro-Palestinians views got about $18,000.
“…93% of US lawmakers advocated for military or financial support to Israel, 81% backed Israel’s military response, 17% either criticized that response or advocated for a cease-fire, and 17% made statements that provided context for the conflict.” [ US Lawmakers received over $58 million from Israeli lobby Last Election Cycle, Common Dreams News, 10 January 2024]
But the Zionist lobby has failed to win over public opinion. That will be its downfall.
The exposure of lies
The Israeli propaganda machine is failing despite the obvious bias of the mainstream media.
Israel has lied consistently about using banned white phosphorus.
On 10 October in Lebanon and 11 October in Gaza, Israel used white phosphorus shells, which it denied.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International provided evidence of their use.
Its lie about Hamas using that weapon were also exposed by Human Rights Watch.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office claimed that Hamas fighters beheaded up to 40 children during their 7 October attack on the town of Kfar Aza. Biden claimed to have seen the evidence.
“However, Israeli journalists who visited the scene of the alleged beheadings saw no evidence to support the allegation and the Israeli military officials accompanying them made no mention of it.”
Claims that Hamas fighters raped women during their attack on 7 October were widely repeated in the US media and by US politicians, including President Biden.
However, on 10 October an Israeli military spokesperson said that Israel “does not yet have any evidence of rape having occurred during Saturday’s attack or its aftermath.”
This issue remains highly controversial and still unresolved.
On 13 October, a civilian convoy fleeing Gaza City on a “safe route” was hit by an Israeli airstrike, killing 70 people. Israeli denials were countered by Amnesty International which verified videos of the attack. [Fact Sheet: Israel’s History of Spreading Disinformation,” IMEU\]
Big brother
Despite awareness of the degree of corruption emanating from AIPAC, the Biden administration doggedly votes down universal demands for a ceasefire in Gaza at the UN Security Council.
In the last vote even the UK abstained. The USA stood alone. [Al Jazeera, 20 February 2024]
While AIPAC funding remains influential in US political life and while politicians fear for challenges in party primaries from cashed up opponents if they deviate from the approved narrative, this distortion of American and world politics will continue.
In defending the indefensible, the USA is wiping out its political capital around the world, a dangerous development for its future.
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