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Israel: Good for America?
A New Book By James
Petras
Clarity Press
ccun.org, August 28, 2008
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Israel: Good for America?
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Zionism, Militarism,
and the
Decline
OF
US Power
BY
James Petras
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 0-932863-60-4 || 978-0-932863-60-7 || 192 pages
SYNOPSIS
CONTENTS
AUTHOR
ORDER
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SYNOPSIS
Criticizing
and exposing the powerful public role of American
Zionism in shaping US policy in the Middle East is
the biggest taboo in US politics. Politicians,
academics, journalists, prelates and ordinary
American citizens who publicly voice their dissent
are targeted for political purges, denied academic
tenure, and access to the mass media and
scurrilously labeled as ‘anti-Semites’ by the
Zionist power configuration.
This book challenges the claims of Zionist
apologists who argue that the ‘Israel power
configuration’ is just another lobby, by empirically
examining several major policies.The case studies
demonstrate conclusively that today issues of war
and peace, trade and investment agreements by US,
European and Asian oil companies and banks in the
Middle East, multi-billion dollar arms sales to
Saudi Arabia are all subject to ZPC scrutiny and
veto.
The new ‘broad definition’ of what affects
Israel includes Lobby backing for Bush’s shredding
of Constitutional restraints on his war powers.
It is not merely regional expansion which ‘interests
Israel’ but economic and military aid and
sales—namely who determines what military goods the
US can sell to Arab states as well as what high end
military technology the US should provide to the
world’s fourth biggest arms merchant—Israel
(which is also the US’s arms export competitor).the
Zionist power configuration (ZPC) in the US Congress
has blocked trade and sales to Saudi Arabia, despite
the backing of the US oil and military-industrial
sectors. Thanks to its influence in the mass media,
the ZPC effectively delayed, degraded and then
marginalized a long-awaited report by16 US national
intelligence agencies on Iran’s non-military nuclear
program in favor of dubious bellicose claims issued
by the state of Israel.
Only Zion-Con demands and Israeli interests
can explain the current US moves against
Iran---threats, infiltrations, naval blockades, US
Treasury-imposed sanctions on the entire Iranian
financial sector including threats to global finance
for any linkages---policies which are contrary to
the interests of Big Oil, US corporations, and the
weakened US military.
Petras empirically demonstrates that while
the interests of the US do not in fact coincide with
those of Israel, the effective power of the
pro-Zionist Lobby gives Israel the capacity to
replace the US agenda with its own.
At a time when our national economy is in
deep crisis, the Israel Lobby is pushing for a new
military confrontation and war with Iran, oblivious
to its catastrophic consequences for the American
people. Major pro-Israel officials and politicians
in Homeland Security, the National Security Council,
the Congress and the White House are passing more
police-state legislation to control and silence the
growing majority opposition to the expansion of wars
in the Middle East promoted by the Israel Lobby.
This book establishes the reasons why coming
to grips with the impact of Israel and the Israel
Lobby on US policy is so essential to bringing peace
to the Middle East, restoring public freedoms in our
country and taking back our right to decide not only
US foreign policy, but our domestic policy as well,
in the interests of the vast majority of the
American people.
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THE AUTHOR
James
Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of
Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. He is
the author of 63 books published in 29 languages,
and over 560 articles in professional journals,
including the American Sociological Review,
British Journal of Sociology, Social
Research, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 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,
Temps Moderne, 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. Some recent titles include
Unmasking Globalization: Imperialism of the
Twenty-First Century (2001); co-author The
Dynamics of Social Change in Latin America
(2000), Unmasking Globalisation (2001),
System in Crisis (2003), co-author Social
Movements and State Power (2003), co-author
Empire With Imperialism (2005), co-author)
Multinationals on Trial (2006). His most
recent title, The Power of Israel in the United
States (Clarity Press, Inc. 2006), has been
acquired for Japanese, German, Italian, Indonesian
and Arabic editions. 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.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I. ZIONISM AND
US MILITARISM
1. How Zionist Power in the US Promotes US Wars in
the Middle East
The True Cause of the War on Iraq: From
Pretexts to Cover-ups
The War for Oil
Argument
The National
Security Argument
From Iraq War Cover-up to Iran War Propaganda
Israel, the ZPC and the Run-up to the Invasion of
Iraq
War with Iran: The Highest Priority for the ZPC (and
Israel)
Zionist Power in the United States
‘Jewish Vote’, ‘Israel Lobby’ or ‘Zionist Power
Configuration’?
War for Oil or for Israel: What the Public Record
Reveals
Zionist Warmongering: Fear and Venom
From a Scratch to Gangrene: The Transition from
Zionism to Zion-Fascism
Deflecting Peace Initiatives
The ZPC and Armenian Holocaust Denial: At the
Service of Israel
Anti-Iraq War Democratic Presidential Candidates
Pro-War on Iran
The Impact of Zionist Authoritarianism on American
Democracy
2. War on Iran: The
American Military versus the Israel Firsters
Introduction
Recent History of the Civilian Militarists versus
Anti-War Movements
American Military Fights the ZPC over Middle East
Wars
Israel-Firsters Win Round One
Round Two: American Military Resists War on Iran
Making the IAEA Report Safe for American Public
Consumption
Fundamental Issues in Dispute by the US Military and
Israel-Firsters
Military-Zion-Con: Punch and Counter-Punch
Conclusion
3. Burying the
National Intelligence Estimate
Introduction
Israel Rejects the “Intelligence Report from the
Other Side of the Earth”
The “International Community” Climbs on Board
The Drumbeat Goes On
4.
Provocations as Pretexts for Imperial War: From
Pearl Harbor to 9/11
Provocation as Pretext for the US War Against Japan
Provocation as Pretext for the US War Against Korea
The US Indochina War: Johnson’s Tonkin Pretext
Provocation as Pretext: 9/11 and the
Afghan/Iraq Invasions
The Politics of Military Provocations
Military-Driven Empire Building: The Zionist
Connection
The Terror Bombing: White House and Zionist
Complicity
Provocations and Pretexts: The Israeli/US War
Against Iran
Zion-Con Zelikow, the 2002 National Security
Strategy and 9/11
Part II. EMBRACING
THE ISRAELI MODUS OPERANDI OF ENDLESS WAR
5. The Palestinian Sewage Disaster: The
Political Ecology of US/Israeli Responsibility in
Microcosm
6. General Petraeus: From Surge to Purge
to Dirge
Introduction
Petraeus’ Phony Success in Northern Iraq
An Armchair Strategist
Madness in His Method: The Petraeus Manual
Petraeus’ Double Discourse
Petraeus’ Political Ambitions
Petraeus Panders to Israel’s Fifth Column:
“The Iran Threat”
Conclusion
Part III:
MILITARISM AND THE DECLINE OF US POWER
7. Military-Driven over Market-Driven
Empire Building: 1950-2008
Introduction
Immediate Post-WWII: The Combination of Market
and Military Roads to Empire
Divergence in the World Economy:
US-Europe-Japan
Market Versus Military Empire Building in the 1990s
Historic Comparison of Market- and Military-Driven
Imperialism
From the Gulf, to the Gulf and Back to the Gulf:
1990-2008 (and beyond)
Military-Driven Empire Building and Zionism
Imperial Wars, Social Revolutions and Capitalist
Restorations
Was ‘Socialism a Detour to Capitalism’?
Were ‘Imperial Wars Necessary for Capitalist
Expansion’?
Military-Driven Imperialism Today and the Newly
Emerging Imperial Powers
Market-Driven Versus Militarist Alliances
Conclusion
8. US
Militarism and the Expanding Israeli Agenda
Introduction
New Directions for US Policy: A Moderate Arab
Agenda?
‘New Facts’ and the New Middle East Realities
The Iraq War: A Success for Israel
Democrats Capitulate to the Pro-Israel Lobby on Bush
War Powers
Israel-AIPAC-US Middle East Wars
Democratic House Majority Leader Serves as Israel’s
Messenger
Buying Israeli Permission for Arms Sales to Saudi
Arabia
Democratic Party Presidential Candidates Truckle to
the Lobby
The Lobby Versus Federal Prosecutors: The AIPAC Spy
Trial
Re-arming Clients: The Washington/ZPC War Machine
Rolls On
In Lebanon
In the Occupied Territories
In Iraq
In Somalia
Judeo-Centrism: From Ghetto Defense to
Imperial Ambitions
Part IV:
CHALLENGING THE LOBBY
9. American Jews on War and Peace: What
the Polls Do and Don’t Tell Us
Introduction
The Poll: A Re-Analysis
The Failure of Jewish Anti-Zionist Resistance
Israeli Anti-Arab/Muslim Racism
The Role of American Jews in the Peace Movement
10. Why Condemning Israel
and the Zionist Lobby Is So Important
Introduction
ZPC Deniers: Phony Arguments for Fake Claims
The Careful Crafting of Critiques of Israel /ZPC
The ZPC Lobbies For War
“Democratic” Israel Diminishes Democracy in the
United States
Israeli Interests Trump US Interests
Social Opposition and Political Impotence
What Happened to the Peace Movement?
No Naming and Shaming for the Israel War Lobby
Why Confronting the Lobby Matters
INDEX |
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