Zionism, Militarism and the Decline of US Power

by James Petras

Overview

##Following in the train of two highly successful books addressing the influence of Israel on US Middle East policy and the onerous effects of support for Israeli interests that have resulted, Petras pursues this theme to illustrate how the conjunction of Israeli domestc influence in the US, spurring and combined with US militarism, has now led to a decline in U.S. power around the world. #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, 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, TempsModerne, Le Monde Diplomatique, and his commentary is widely carried on the internet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780932863751
Publisher:	SCB Distributors
Publication date:	07/01/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	311 KB

About 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, such as the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, and Social Research. He has published over 2000 articles in nonprofessional journals such as the New York Times, Guardian, Nation, Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New Left Review, Partisan Review, TempsModerne, Le Monde Diplomatique. His commentary is widely carried on the internet, and his views solicited by media.

Read an Excerpt

On Monday, March 26, 2007 in Northern Gaza a river of raw sewage and debris overflowed from a collapsed earth embankment into a refugee camp driving 3,000 Palestinians from their homes. Five residents drowned, 25 were injured and scores of houses were destroyed.

The New York Times, Washington Post and the television media blamed shoddy infrastructure. The Daily Alert (the house organ of the Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations) blamed the Palestinians who they claimed were removing sand to sell to construction contractors thus undermining the earth embankment. The disaster at Umm Naser (the village in question) is emblematic of everything that is wrong with US-Israeli politics in the Middle East. The disaster in this isolated village has its roots first and foremost in Washington where AIPAC and its political allies have successfully secured US backing for Israel's financial and economic boycott of the Palestinian government subsequent to the democratic electoral victory of Hamas. AIPAC's victory in Washington reverberated throughout Europe and beyond - as the European Union also applied sanctions shutting off financing of all new infrastructure projects and the maintenance of existing facilities. At the AIPAC conventions of 2005 through 2007, the leaders of both major American parties, congressional leaders and the White House pledged to re-enforce AIPAC's boycott and sanctions strategy. AIPAC celebrated its victory for Israeli policy and claimed authorship of the legislation. In addition to malnutrition, the policy undermined all public maintenance projects.

Equally central to the disaster, Israel's massive sustained bombing attack on Gaza in the summer of 2006, demolished roads, bridges, sewage treatment facilities, water purification and electrical power plants. Northern Gaza was one of its many targets, putting severe strain on already precarious infrastructure and government budgets - including the maintenance of sewage treatment plants and cesspools.

It is possible that, forced by the AIPAC-induced US-EU boycott and Israeli bombing and blockade, some desperate workers removed some sand around the cesspool-the pretext cited by the Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations (PMAJO) for blaming the Palestinian victims for their own suffering, and exonerating the Israelis, AIPAC and their congressional clients.

Table of Contents

Zionism and Us Militarism
How Zionist Power in the US Promotes US Wars in the Middle East     15
The True Cause of the War on Iraq: From Pretexts to Cover-ups     15
The War for Oil Argument     16
The National Security Argument     19
From Iraq War Cover-up to Iran War Propaganda     20
Israel, the ZPC and the Run-up to the Invasion of Iraq     22
War with Iran: The Highest Priority for the ZPC (and Israel)     25
Zionist Power in the United States     27
'Jewish Vote', 'Israel Lobby' or 'Zionist Power Configuration'?     29
War for Oil or for Israel: What the Public Record Reveals     31
Zionist Warmongering: Fear and Venom     34
From a Scratch to Gangrene: The Transition from Zionism to Zion-Fascism     35
Deflecting Peace Initiatives     37
The ZPC and Armenian Holocaust Denial: At the Service of Israel     39
Anti-Iraq War Democratic Presidential Candidates Pro-War on Iran     40
The Impact of Zionist Authoritarianism on American Democracy     42
War on Iran: The American Military versus the Israel Firsters     55
Introduction     55
Recent History of the Civilian Militarists versus Anti-War Movements     56
American Military Fights the ZPC over Middle EastWars     56
Israel-Firsters Win Round One     57
Round Two: American Military Resists War on Iran     58
Making the IAEA Report Safe for American Public Consumption     63
Fundamental Issues in Dispute by the US Military and Israel-Firsters     64
Military/Zion-Con: Punch and Counterpunch     68
Conclusion     69
Burying the National Intelligence Estimate     73
Introduction     73
Israel Rejects "the Intelligence Report from the Other Side of the Earth"     77
The "International Community" Climbs on Board     78
The Drumbeat Goes On     80
Provocations as Pretexts for Imperial War: From Pearl Harbor to 9/11     85
Provocation as Pretext for the US War Against Japan     86
Provocation as Pretext for the US War Against Korea     87
The US Indochina War: Johnson's Tonkin Pretext     89
Provocation as Pretext: 9/11 and the Afghan/Iraq Invasions     91
The Politics of Military Provocations     94
Military-Driven Empire Building: The Zionist Connection     96
The Terror Bombing: White House and Zionist Complicity     98
Provocations and Pretexts: The Israeli/US War Against Iran     99
Zion-Con Zelikow, the 2002 National Security Strategy and 9/11     102
Embracing the Israeli Modus Operandi of Endless War
The Palestinian Sewage Disaster: The Political Ecology of US/Israeli Responsibility in Microcosm     107
General Petraeus: From Surge to Purge to Dirge     111
Introduction     111
Petraeus' Phony Success in Northern Iraq     112
An Armchair Strategist     113
Madness in His Method: The Petraeus Manual     114
Petraeus' Double Discourse     118
Petraeus' Political Ambitions     119
Petraeus Panders to Israel's Fifth Column: "The Iran Threat"     120
Conclusion     121
Militarism and the Decline of Us Power
Military-Driven over Market-Driven Empire Building: 1950-2008     125
Introduction     125
Immediate Post-WWII: The Combination of Market and Military Roads to Empire     126
Divergence in the World Economy: US-Europe-Japan     127
Market Versus Military Empire Building in the 1990s     128
Historic Comparison of Market- and Military-Driven Imperialism     131
From the Gulf, to the Gulf and Back to the Gulf: 1990-2008 (and beyond)     132
Military-Driven Empire Building and Zionism     132
Imperial Wars, Social Revolutions and Capitalist Restorations      134
Was 'Socialism a Detour to Capitalism'?     135
Were 'Imperial Wars Necessary for Capitalist Expansion'?     136
Military-Driven Imperialism Today and the Newly Emerging Imperial Powers     138
Market-Driven Versus Militarist Alliances     138
Conclusion     141
US Militarism and the Expanding Israeli Agenda     145
Introduction     125
New Directions for US Policy: A Moderate Arab Agenda?     146
'New Facts' and the New Middle East Realities     147
The Iraq War: A Success for Israel     1149
Democrats Capitulate to the Pro-Israel Lobby on Bush War Powers     151
Israel-AIPAC-US Middle East Wars     152
Democratic House Majority Leader Serves as Israel's Messenger     154
Buying Israeli Permission for Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia     155
Democratic Party Presidential Candidates Truckle to the Lobby     156
The Lobby Versus Federal Prosecutors: The AIPAC Spy Trial     157
AIPAC Trial Inadvertently "Outs" Israel's Strategic Informant in the White House     158
Israel Pushes Islamo-Fascism Rhetoric     159
Re-arming Clients: The Washington/ZPC War Machine Rolls On     159
In Lebanon     160
In the Occupied Territories      160
In Iraq     161
In Somalia     162
Judeo-Centrism: From Ghetto Defense to Imperial Ambitions     163
Challenging the Lobby
American Jews on War and Peace: What the Polls Do and Don't Tell Us     169
Introduction     169
The Poll: A Re-Analysis     170
The Failure of Jewish Anti-Zionist Resistance     171
Israeli Anti-Arab/Muslim Racism     172
The Role of American Jews in the Peace Movement     173
Why Condemning Israel and the Zionist Lobby Is So Important     175
Introduction     175
ZPC Deniers: Phony Arguments for Fake Claims     175
The Careful Crafting of Critiques of Israel /the ZPC     177
The ZPC Lobbies For War     178
"Democratic" Israel Diminishes Democracy in the United States     179
Israeli Interests Trump US Interests     180
Social Opposition and Political Impotence     182
What Happened to the Peace Movement?     183
No Naming and Shaming for the Israel War Lobby     184
Why Confronting the Lobby Matters     185
Index     188

Editorial Reviews

"Jim Petras is one of the best informed political scientists of his generation."--Tom Brass, Editor, The Journal of Peasant Studies, Cambridge

"James Petras is #59 in its list of America's 100 most influential liberals (ahead of Noam Chomsky and Stephen Colbert)"--The UK Daily Telegraph

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