Experts, Journalists Discuss the Un-Discussable at Washington DC Conference
“Israel’s Influence: Good or Bad for America?” was the theme of a well attended daylong conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on March 18, 2016. The conference was co-sponsored by the American Educational Trust, publisher, and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep).
Dale Sprusansky, editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs moderated the first panel. In the panel, Grant F. Smith analyzed the history, size, scope and activities of Israel affinity organizations and ‘their increasingly negative—but little known—impact on all Americans’.
He quoted a recent poll, in which 62 percent of the British people believe that the Israelis occupy Palestinian land while 51-55 percent of Canadians and Mexicans believe the same. There is only one country in North America that believes the opposite is true -- the United States.
He noted the distinction between the Jewish lobby and the Israeli lobby. “If we look at the latest Pew Charitable Trusts survey, you find that 82 percent of the Jewish population in this country does not belong to such organizations. They’re only somewhat attached to Israel, 70 percent. Most have never traveled to Israel. Forty-four percent think settlement building is a bad idea. If you take that remaining 18 percent and multiply it by the adult Jewish population, it’s about 774,000, or the population of Charlotte, North Carolina. The lobby knows and talks about this internally, saying, you know what, someday we’re going to be challenged on these numbers and all of these broad claims,” said Smith deconstructing the narrative that American Jews overwhelmingly support the Israeli Lobby.
Who funds the lobby was another question answered by Grant.
Grant pointed out that the Israeli lobby transitioned into the largest charitable entity in the United States. In 2012, there was about $3.7 billion, by the end of the decade it will be at $6.2 billion. The tax burden that this creates directly means that Americans, just to offset the subsidy, will be paying about a billion dollars extra in taxes by the end of the year.
Dr. Roger Mattson, who recently wrote a book on how Israel, with the help of its American supporters, diverted U.S. weapons-grade uranium to Dimona in the 1960s, and why the U.S. government never did anything about it, spoke about his research.
Prof. Kirk J. Beattie spoke on how Congress shapes Middle East policy, and how the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) shapes Congress. His speech was an analysis of how AIPAC creates incredibly strong support for Israel in the U.S. Congress and was based on more than 150 interviews with Congress staffers and dozens more with Middle East policy lobbyists and activists.
The second panel discussed the influence of Israel on American foreign policy. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff, spoke about what Israel’s influence is on U.S. foreign policy. “Does the unbiased policy of the U.S. toward [Israel] jeopardize U.S. national security interest? You bet it does, big time,” said the colonel. Jim Lobe discussed the neocons who push pro-Israel policy. Justin Raimondo took a look at how U.S. elections and politicians are impacted by such beliefs.
Gideon Levy is a well-known journalist in Israel with Haaretz, whose speech from last year went viral. He gave the keynote for the conference to a standing ovation. “American congressmen should know that the life of Palestinians in Israel right now is the cheapest ever. With everything we went through, never was it so cheap. Never was it so easy to kill Palestinians. Never was it so little discussed. Never was it hardly covered by the Israeli media, the biggest collaborator with the occupation. Never was it so natural that any Palestinian must be held as a suspect, and any suspect must be executed. American legislators should know this.”
A panel filled with exciting Palestinian voices was titled “Responding to Israel’s Influence on Campus and in Court” moderated by Janet McMahon. Susan Abulhawa, a novelist, is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury Department for allowing tax-deductible contributions to go to illegal Israeli settlements. A Haaretz investigation reported in a four-year period—between 2009 and 2013—that 50 U.S. tax-exempt organizations alone funneled more than $220 million to exclusively Jewish settlements in Palestine. The Hebron Fund is a Brooklyn-based group that provides approximately half of the Hebron settler community’s funding. Between 2009 and 2014 it transferred $5.7 million to the settler community of just a few hundred individuals who live in the midst of 220,000 Palestinians.
She shared the narrative of the people most affected by these monetary contributions. “They start terrorizing us at a young age. At any given time, Israel typically holds hundreds of Palestinian children in administrative detention, where they are interrogated and tortured without charge, without trial, without their parents, without a lawyer, without an advocate. They’re often kidnapped on their way to and from school, playing in the streets and throwing rocks at tanks, as they have a right to do, or pulled from their beds and dragged away in the middle of the night. They’re shot and murdered or maimed wherever they stand,” she said.
Rula Jebreal, a Palestinian journalist gave the second keynote. She was raised in a Palestinian orphanage and went on to be the first foreign anchor woman on Italian television. Previously an admirer of American media, she says that American media has been the most disappointing thing she has seen in her life. “Even working in countries like Egypt, I’ve seen pushbacks by certain journalists, reporters, TV hosts far much more than in this country. And I’m saying that because I’ve seen what that produced. Iraq was a war of choice. It was a non sequitur country that was invaded for a non existential threat. It could have happened only with the tacit, silent and vocal consent of American media, which sold a lie—and none of these people have ever been fired! They’ve actually been recycled, and they still are called experienced and the experts on many issues—Iran and the Iran nuclear deal, they’re writing long essays about Obama’s doctrine, as they call it. Nobody ever questioned their failures, their lies, their manipulation. None of that has happened,” she stated.
She noted that the Israeli model is not contained in Israel. “It’s being transported and it’s becoming part of the American model. So when you have police brutality and the cozy relationship with the media, it’s becoming a cozy relationship in the police departments. So the police who abused their powers in Ferguson have been trained actually by Israeli police, and it’s considered normal. Nobody’s investigating this kind of cozy relationship,” she said.
Book signings for speakers who had published books were held after the speeches.
Despite the heavy duty lineup of speakers, the conference was not covered by mainstream American media —a testimony to the influence of Israel.
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