http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/111483/831114007.html
Book Review of The Zionist Connection II
By Alfred M. Lilienthal.
New Brunswick, New Jersey: North
American Publishers, 1982.
904 pp. $9.95 (paperback)
Reviewed by Grace Halsell
November 14, 1983, Page 7, Washington Report
It is indeed welcome news that Alfred
Lilienthal's monumental book, that so
thoroughly documents the Zionist
influence in American society, has
been published in a reasonably priced
paperback edition.
In this update of his original work,
published by Dodd, Mead, in 1978,
Lilienthal gives us an addition of
some 40 pages that cover the last five
years in the Middle East.
No one, to my mind, has provided us
with better researched, better
documented material than Lilienthal,
one of America's foremost anti-Zionist
Jews. His book is an amassment of
facts, an encyclopedia that covers the
story of Zionism from every angle both
in Palestine and in the United States.
In the new edition, Lilienthal
highlights examples of how the U.S.
serves the Zionists. First, take the
case of the President and candidates
for that office. In the last election,
all 12 Democratic and Republican
aspirants, with the exception of a
vacillating John Connally, bowed
completely to Zionist power. To help
him win Jewish votes, candidate Reagan
appointed the ardent Israelist Maxwell
Rabb as his campaign committee vice
chairman.
Vetting the Staff
Once in office, Reagan hired
pro-Israel staff advisors, including
Joseph Churba, a long-time friend of
the militant Jewish Defense League
leader Meir Kahane, as well as two
Israeli citizens, Edward Luttwak and
Uri Raanan.
The Reagan Administration also placed
ardent Zionists, including Sherwood
Goldberg, Harvey Sicherman and David
Korn, in critical State Department
posts, where vital policymaking
decisions affecting Israel are made.
Other Zionists whom the Reagan
Administration chose were Myer
Rashish, as Undersecretary for
Economic Affairs, and Paul Wolfowitz,
as Director of the Policy Planning
Staff. For additional advice involving
the U.S.-Israel special relationship,
the President called in two veteran
pro-Israel fundraisers, Detroit's Max
Fisher and Ted Cummings of Los
Angeles.
The Reagan Administration also
designated Richard Perle, formerly
Senator Jackson's principal liaison
with pro-Israel groups, as Assistant
Secretary of Defense for International
Security Policy. Perle promptly
appointed as consultant Stephen Bryen,
whom Justice Department officials had
earlier said was suspected by them of
espionage for Israel. Lilienthal
writes that the Republicans, coming to
power with the deepest anti-Soviet
sentiment, viewed the Palestinians,
and the PLO in particular, as an
integral part of the Communist vortex.
Although such a polarization was
dangerous to the rest of the world,
this viewpoint nevertheless was "most
pleasing to the Israelis."
Whatever actions of aggression the
Israelis take, Lilienthal says, they
may expect ultimate, if not immediate,
American endorsement.
Take the case of Israel's raid on the
Iraqi nuclear facilities. As
Lilienthal reminds us, eight F-16 jet
fighter bombers, newly acquired from
American factories and escorted by six
F-15s, flew from an Etzion, Sinai
airbase and destroyed Iraq's $260
million nuclear reactor complex, about
10 miles southwest of Baghdad and more
than 500 miles from Israel. Reagan
declared Israel may have sincerely
believed the raid was a defensive
move, and he added: "It is very
difficult for me to envision Israel as
being a threat to its neighbors."
The Mossad-CIA Connection
Since the American CIA and Israel's
Mossad, are as close as two peas in a
pod, it was hard to believe that
Washington was not aware of Israel's
intent," Lilienthal writes. He quotes
an Israeli newspaper report that
"Israel relied on U.S. intelligence
data before deciding to carry out its
bombing attack."
As another example of how Zionists
turn U.S. foreign policy into
"nonsensical inconsistencies,"
Lilienthal writes that "the U.S. was
giving aid to Iranian exiles battling
the Ayatollah while Israel was
permitted in 1981 and 1982 to ship
U.S. arms to assist the Khomeini
regime in its war with Iraq." He adds
that Washington gave covert approval
to Israel's support of Teheran and to
the Israeli goal of downing the Saddam
Hussein regime, until Washington
became alarmed lest an impending Iraqi
defeat endanger other 'moderate'
friendly Arab Gulf regimes."
Lilienthal's additional material
brings us through the summer of 1982's
Israeli genocide in Lebanon, with the
killing and wounding of 40,000
Palestinians and Lebanese. In the
midst of this, Reagan received Begin
in the Oval office. And Congress voted
more aid to Israel. Lilienthal
believes one thing is certain: the
U.S. will never "start acting like a
great nation" as long as an Israeli
prime minister can instantaneously
rally American Jews behind him for
Zionist goals-while ignoring American
national interests.
The book concludes with a warning that
since the U.S. military presence in
the Middle East has greatly expanded,
and the arms race continues to
escalate, the tragedy of nuclear war
could-without a miraculous
breakthrough -envelop that area and
the world.
Grace Halsell is the author of Journey To Jerusalem
and was a White House speechwriter during the Johnson Administration.
(c) Copyright 1995-1999, American
Educational Trust. All Rights
Reserved.
