The Israel Lobby and the Left: Uneasy Quest i o n s “Make no mistake. The votes and bows have nothing The Israel Lobby and the Left to do with the legislators’ love for Israel. They have Uneasy Quest i o n s everything to do with the money that is fed into their campaigns by members of the Israeli lobby. My esti - mate is that at least $6 billion flows from the American Treasury to Israel each year. That money, plus the political support the US gives Israel at the United Nations, is what allows Israel to conduct crim - inal operations in Palestine with impunity.” - Senator James Abourezk (D-South Dakota) About Jeff rey Blankfo r t Jeffrey Blankfort was raised in a Jewish non-Zionist family. He pro- duces radio programs on three stations and has written extensively on the Middle East. He was formerly the editor of the Middle East Labor Bulletin and co-founder of the Labor Committee of the Middle East. His photographs of the Anti-Vietnam War and Black Panthers Movements have appeared in numerous books and magazines. In February 2002, he won a lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which was found to have had a vast spying operation Jeffrey Blankfort directed against American citizens opposed to Israel’s policies in the Photojournalist and Middle East Analyst Occupied West Bank and Gaza and to the apartheid policies of the government of South Africa and passing on information to both gov- ernments. www.IfAmericansKnew.org [email protected] • 202-631-4060 Published by If Americans Knew I F A M E R I C A N S K N E W f there is one event that exposed [the M I S S I O N S TA T E M E N T Zionist] influence over of the [peace] Imovement, it is what occurred in the streets of New York on June 12, 1982, when 800,000 people gathered in front of In a democracy, the ultimate responsibility for a nation's actions rests with its the United Nations to call for a ban on citizens.The top rung of government - the entity with the ultimate power of governance - is the asserted will of the people.Therefore, in any democracy, nuclear weapons. Six days earlier, on June it is essential that its citizens be fully and accurately informed. 6th, Israel had launched a devastating inva- sion of Lebanon. Its goal was to destroy In the United States, currently the most powerful nation on earth, it is even the Palestine Liberation Organization, then more essential that its citizens receive complete and undistorted information on topics of importance, so that they may wield their extraordinary power based in that country. Eighty thousand sol- with wisdom and intelligence. diers, backed by massive bombing from the air and from the sea were creating a level Unfortunately, such information is not always forthcoming. of death and destruction that dwarfed what Iraq would later do in Kuwait.Within The mission of If Americans Knew is to inform and educate the American public on issues of major significance that are unreported, underreported, or a year there would be 20,000 Palestinians misreported in the American media. and Lebanese dead and tens of thousands more wounded. It is our belief that when Americans know the facts on a subject, they will, in the final analysis, act in accordance with morality, justice, and the best inter- ests of their nation, and of the world.With insufficient information,or distort- And what was the response that day in ed information, they may do the precise opposite. New York? In recognition of the suffering then taking place in his homeland, a It is the mission of If Americans Knew to ensure that this does not happen - Lebanese man was allowed to sit on the that the information on which Americans base their actions is complete, stage, but he would not be introduced; not accurate, and undistorted by conscious or unconscious bias, by lies of either commission or omission, or by pressures exerted by powerful special inter- allowed to say a word. Nor was the sub- est groups. It is our goal to supply the information essential to those respon- ject mentioned by any of the speakers. sible for the actions of the strongest nation on earth - the American people. Israel and its lobby couldn’t have asked for anything more. Jeffrey Blankfort Booklets Available From If Americans Knew THE ISRAEL LOBBY AND THE LEFT: A Rose by Another Name: The Bush Administration’s Dual Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel A description of Jewish Loyalties The neocons who pushed us into war – who they are, supremacist groups in Israel, first published in The Nation. By UNEASY QUESTIONS what they want, and where they came from. By former CIA ana- Israeli author David Hirst. lyst Kathleen Cristison. Christians Discriminated Against by Israel A report on Israeli by Jeffrey Blankfort A War for Israel A detailed analysis of why the US invaded Iraq. policies and actions regarding Christians. By former Ti m e By journalist and Mideast commentator Jeffrey Blankfort. Magazine Senior Editor and Jerusalem Bureau Chief Donald Neff Israeli Attacks on the US Navy and Marines Do Palestinians Teach Their Children to Hate? A scholarly The Attack on the USS Liberty – Israel’s attack on a US Navy study of Palestinian textbooks and curricula. By George t was 1991 and Noam Chomsky had just J e ff rey Blankfort was ship, in which 34 American servicemen were killed and 172 Washington Professor Nathan Brown. (The quick answer: no.) injured. By Ambassador James Akins, Admiral Thomas Moorer, finished a lecture in Berkeley on the raised in a Jewish non- and Captain Ward Boston. Einstein’s Letter to the New York Times A 1948 letter signed by Zionist family. He is the ‘Israel Charged with Systematic Harassment of U.S. Marines’ Einstein, Hannah Arendt and other prominent thinkers opposing Israeli-Palestinian conflict and was taking – The Marines in Lebanon. By Donald Neff, former Senior Editor Menachem Begin’s “terrorism.” Begin later became Prime I former editor of the and Mideast bureau chief for Time Magazine. Minister of Israel. questions from the audience. An A r a b - Middle East Labor Being a Target: Reports from Gaza & ‘Close your organiza - The Information Blockade: The Prism Between Middle American asked him to explain his position tion or die…’ Two letters home from freelance journalist Alison Eastern Reality and Americans A first-hand account of the per- Bulletin and has written Weir, describing, among other things, what it’s like to be shot at. ils of filming – and trying to air – an honest documentary on Israel. regarding the influence of America’s Israel extensively on the Israel- Following this trip, Weir founded If Americans Knew. The last By prize-winning filmmaker and Ohio State Professor Tom Hayes piece is on a death threat received by the organization. lobby. Palestine conflict. His Iraq, Palestine, and the Israel Lobby “Connecting the dots,” by photographs of the Anti- Rachel’s Letters / Las Cartas de Raquel 23-year-old Rachel Former Yale Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh; and “The Debate that Chomsky replied that its reputation was Corrie’s correspondence with her parents before she was killed by Never Happened,” by Mideast analyst Jeffrey Blankfort, co- Vietnam War and Black Israeli forces. Also available in Spanish. founder of the Labor Committee on the Middle East. generally exaggerated and, like other lobbies, Panthers Movements Let Us Rethink Our ‘Special Relationship’ with Israel A lumi- Jewish Defense League Unleashes Campaign of Violence in nous explication of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By Charles America A report on a terrorist organization in the United States it only appears to be powerful when its posi- have appeared in numer - Black, Sterling Professor of Law Emeritus at Yale University (the responsible for killing and intimidation, by former Time Magazine ous books and magazines. school’s highest teaching post). Senior Editor Donald Neff. tion lines up with that of the “elites” who Living With the Holocaust: The journey of a Child of Off the Charts: Network Coverage of Israel/Palestine A two- determine policy in Washington. Earlier in the Holocaust Survivors A moving essay By Sara Roy, a Senior year statistical study of the primetime news on ABC, CBS, and Research Scholar at Harvard University. NBC. The results are highly disturbing. evening, he had asserted that Israel received support from the United States Palestinian Right to Return and Repatriation The core issue of Off the Charts: New York Times Coverage of Israel/Palestine as a reward for the services it provides as the US’s “cop-on-the-beat” in the the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, author of A two-year statistical study of The New York Times revealing con- Sharing the Land of Canaan. sistent patterns of bias. Middle East. Special Report: Israel’s Treatment of Americans An expose on The Origin of the Israel-Palestine Conflict A clear, thoroughly Chomsky’s response drew a warm round of applause from members of Israeli torture of US citizens, originally published in Foreign referenced history of the conflict, by Jews for Justice in Palestine. Service Journal. By Jerri Bird, founder of Partners for Peace. the audience who were no doubt pleased to have American Jews absolved Reflecting on our Relationship with Israel A former 11-term The Cost of Israel to U.S. Taxpayers A full accounting of the Republican Congressman provides a hard-hitting assessment of from any blame for Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians, then in the fourth total amount of money Israel costs Americans – approximately the consequences of US policies.