[lbo-talk] Chomsky: Israel Lobby ?

[Carl Remick]

>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>
>Carl Remick wrote:
>
>>You're focusing on a point that is marginal at best to Alam's central 
>>argument, which is that present-day Israel subverts the US's obvious 
>>material interests, i.e.:
>>
>>"The obvious American path [to world domination], if we started carte 
>>blanche, would be to actually get 300 of the 306 million people in an 
>>oil-rich region on your side as much as possible; to get the side that 
>>actually has the oil to tolerate you - you know, the dozens of countries 
>>versus ... just the one without any oil. Otherwise,  you end up with some 
>>nasty stuff: mass riots ostensibly over cartoons, a totally unstable 
>>simmering Arab world with creaky despots sitting on a pot of boiling 
>>Islamists, a fanatical Iranian regime which nonetheless understands that 
>>another country owning 200 nuclear warheads legitimizes its own possession 
>>of such arms - and so on."
>>
>>QED I'd say.
>
>Gee, that Zionist lobby is pretty damned clever! They've really put one 
>over on the US bourgeoisie, haven't they?
>
>How can people believe this nonsense? How can you argue that the US elite 
>has systematically and persistently misunderstood its interests for almost 
>40 years? That makes sense if you believe in the sinister conspiratorial 
>effectiveness of The Jews; otherwise, it makes none.

You're as fixated on the rearview mirror as Carrol, Doug.  Whatever cold war 
strategic value the aircraft carrier USS Israel had is long gone.  Israel is 
an expensive strategic liability to the US now, a valueless burden at a time 
that the US should be buddying up to the Islamic states that control the oil 
the US desperately needs.

As I noted in an earlier post, I do not see the US as a noble innocent 
conned into an evil policy by the nefarious Israelis.  Iraq was a folie à 
deux no question.  The US was spoiling for a fight well before 9/11 for 
various reasons:  (1) It was puffed up with imperial pride due to the ease 
of the NATO Balkans war; (2) the US establishment wanted the public to stop 
thinking as greedy investors (due to the stockmarket collapse and permanent 
loss of retirement funds) and start thinking as selfless patriots; and (3) 
the military was eager for another turkey shoot like Serbia, Grenada or 
Panama so they could try out their latest stuff and justify demands for 
increased funding.  Israel's neocon champions simply acted as a trigger for 
a bomb that was ready to go off.

Carl