With Friends Like These…
By Uri Avnery
14.1.06
JUDAS ISCARIOT is headed for a makeover. According to news reports, cardinals close to the new pope recommend a change
in the Catholic Church's attitude towards him: exit the treacherous Jew who turns the messiah over to the cohorts of the
evil High Priest - enter the apostle who simply fulfilled his role in the divine design. After all, it was God who
decided that his son should die on the cross.
A well-intentioned effort, but a pathetic one. No Vatican decision can alter the image of Judas in the New Testament: a
despicable informer who received "thirty pieces of silver" for his betrayal of the Son of God. No Christian who absorbs
this story in his childhood will ever forget the picture of the contemptible traitor who kisses Jesus at the moment of
betraying him to his executioners. Nothing will help except changing the biblical text itself, and that is, of course,
not so easy.
If one of the other 11 apostles had betrayed Jesus, the consequences would not have been, perhaps, so horrible. But
since Judas sounds in many languages like "Jews", the betrayal is associated in the consciousness of Christians with
Jews in general. Multitudes of Jews throughout history have been butchered because of this. The Nazi battle-cry "Judah
Verrecke!" (Perish, Jews!") paved the way to the gas chambers.
Perhaps this had some influence on the young neo-Nazi,Alexander Koptsev, who ran amok this week in the Moscow synagogue,
stabbing and wounding ten people. That act lit up all the red lights. Again, "the rise of anti-Semitism in the world"
became a major subject, again the alarm bells shrilled.
There is indeed a growing danger of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism - two different phenomena that can appear both
together and separately. But it is not connected with primitive skinheads like the Moscow knife-wielder. It is much more
dangerous, and the fuel that feeds them exists in other places and on other levels.
IN ONE of the stream of speeches in which George W. Bush is now trying to defend his ill-fated invasion of Iraq, this
week he let loose a sentence that should light all the red lights. In this sentence he castigated his opponents for
asserting that he had attacked Iraq "for the oil and for Israel".
He thus brought to the surface an assertion that had until then been openly voiced only by anti-Semitic marginal groups.
They have put together three facts: (a) that the people who most aggressively pushed for the war were the neo-cons who
play a major role in the Bush administration, (b) that almost all the important members of this group are Jews, and (c)
that the occupation of Iraq has freed Israel from a significant military threat.
Up to now, the American media have treated this allegation with contempt, as a ridiculous "conspiracy theory". Now that
the President himself has spoken about it, it may become part of the legitimate public discourse in the United States
and throughout the world.
Therein lies a great danger for Israel. The entire Israeli establishment supported the American invasion. (When we, the
opponents of the war, called a demonstration against it in Tel-Aviv, on the day when millions took to the streets all
around the world, it was a small event, ignored by the media.) Now it may happen, as so often in history, that those
responsible for the disaster will evade responsibility. George Bush will fade from memory in a few years. What will
remain is the impression that Israel and the Jews dragged the poor US into a despicable adventure.
BY SHEER CHANCE, this week saw the appearance of a book about the Iraq war that touches on the same subject - "State of
War" by James Risen.
Among other things, the book says that the Secretary of Defense and the neo-cons who dominate Washington did not listen
to the American intelligence analysts, who advised caution when it came to Iraq, but to the Israeli intelligence people
who flooded Washington and briefed high-ranking officials.
According to Risen, it was the hard-line Israelis that Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, were listening to, not
the cautious CIA. "CIA analysts were often skeptical of Israeli intelligence reports, knowing that Mossad had very
strong - even obvious - biases about the Arab world." After their visits, CIA officials would generally discount much of
what the Israeli intelligence officers supplied, "Wolfowitz and other conservatives at the Pentagon became enraged by
this practice," Risen writes. Wolfowitz is, of course, a very Jewish name.
The obvious conclusion: it was the Israelis and their allies, the Washington Jews, who pushed the US into the war.
AS IF that was not enough, Washington is now rocked by a big scandal that has a close connection with Israel. At its
center stands a person called Jack Abramoff - again a name that discloses the Jewish identity of its owner.
This Jack is a super-lobbyist, a symbol of the phenomenon that has turned American politics into a dirty stable of
corruption, which even the mighty Hercules would have had trouble cleaning up. He skimmed the money of his clients,
mostly Native Americans, put some of it into his own pocket and used the rest to bribe establishment figures, senators
and congressmen. He gave them generous gifts, junkets around the world, suites in luxury hotels and other perks. Most of
the beneficiaries were Republicans, but some crumbs were thrown to Democrats, too.
Up to this point, it’s nothing unusual, just bigger than usual. The lobbying industry is very well developed in
Washington, which is infested by lobbyists like a hobo with lice. The pro-Israeli lobby is no different from all the
others. The lobbyists corrupt everything. They bribe the politicians to make laws that will divert billions of public
money into the pockets of their clients. They play a major role in financing the election campaigns of politicians, from
the President himself down to the lowliest mayor. Only rarely is one of them caught and sent to prison, as may happen
now to that Abramoff.
What is special about Abramoff is that he is a fanatical Zionist. According to the stories published in the States, some
of the money that he diverted was transferred to extreme settlers in the West Bank. Abramoff sent them military
equipment for use against the Palestinians, and perhaps against the Israeli government. Among other items, he bought
them camouflage uniforms, telescopic sights for snipers, night-vision binoculars and a thermal imager.
American publications mention a settler named Shmuel Ben-Zvi from the Betar Illit settlement, a high-school buddy of
Abramoff, who received this equipment. Ben-Zvi denied it, but the Senate committee has obtained e-mail messages from him
lauding Abramoff for sending him "reinforcement", while Abramoff wrote him that "if only there were another dozen of
you, the dirty rats would be finished."
Abramoff himself claims that he is simply an idealist, who uses the money "put into his hands by God" in order to help
Israel. He also financed a - probably fictitious - outfit of Syrian exiles, supported by Israel. One of the American
publications mentions in this context the biblical Mossad motto: "By way of deception thou shalt make war" (Proverbs
24,6 - that's how it sounds in modern Hebrew, but the actual meaning of the words is in doubt. The English Bible renders
it thus: "For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war".)
So that's how it looks to Americans: the man who has become a symbol of corruption is a Jew who supports Israel.
AND AS IF that is not enough, either, another friend of Israel has also made waves in the American media. That's our old
acquaintance Jerry Falwell, the leader of millions of American Christian fundamentalists, a friend of the late Menachem
Begin.
It may be remembered that Binyamin Netanyahu, our then Prime Minister, went to America in 1998 to meet President Bill
Clinton. In those days, Clinton was trying to exert pressure on Israel in order to promote peace. Netanyahu was invited
for this purpose. On the eve of his meeting with Clinton, Netanyahu met publicly with Falwell of all people, in front of
a crowd of hundreds. Falwell, a sworn enemy of Clinton, reveals now that the meeting was deliberately planned as an
affront to the President.
Some days before that, another friend of Netanyahu's, William Kristol, one of the Jewish neo-con power-brokers, had
publicly hinted that a huge White House sex-scandal was about to break. Immediately afterwards, the Monica Lewinsky
scandal was unleashed and the public was informed that the President had had sex in the White House with the young
intern with the very Jewish-sounding name.
Two weeks before the Netanyahu visit, an American Jewish paper had published an ad demanding that the President abstain
from pressuring Israel. The ad included a photo of Clinton taken from the back - the very shot of Clinton embracing
Monica that was later published all around the world.
Falwell practically brags that he helped Netanyahu to blackmail Clinton. If so, he was successful. No pressure on Israel
materialized at that meeting.
By the way, the magazine in which Falwell published his allegation, Vanity Fair, belongs to the publishing empire of Si
and Donald Newhouse, generous contributors to the pro-Israel lobby.
(Another high-profile leader of the Christian fundamentalists, Pat Robertson, declared last week that the stroke that
felled Sharon was God's punishment for giving away a piece of the Holy Land to the Arabs. He later apologized, probably
hoping to save an agreement he has with the Israeli government to build a huge tourist complex near the Sea of Galilee.)
THE PICTURE that emerges for the American public is that Israel and the Jews dominate Washington and that the US
government dances to their tune. That is, of course, a wild exaggeration, but many may come to believe it. That may not
have any immediate influence, but constitutes a very serious long-term danger. When things repeat themselves again and
again, the effect is cumulative.
Such events must serve as a warning. The Israeli government and the leaders of the US Jewish community must think again
about this danger. Disapproving words about "the rise of anti-Semitism" are not enough, what is required is a profound
change of behavior. We must stop all contact with crooks, especially if they are Jewish, and with fundamentalists of all
sorts. Everyone who has the best interests of Israel at heart must demand that. The matter concerns the national
security of Israel, especially when the policy of our government is completely based on unstinting American support.
Ariel Sharon was too overbearing to consider this danger. Let's hope that his successors will be a little more sober
ENDS