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Sunday, November 11, 2007

'Monopoly Power: Pakistan and the Israel Lobby'

By BADRUDDIN KHAN

Recent events in Pakistan should serve as a wake up call. There is more
to the Mideast region than Israel and its Arab antagonists. The Israel
Lobby has been successful in inducing the United States into
mis-allocating its resources to protect Israeli interests, and this is
now having a profound and lasting impact. It is time for supporters of
the Israel Lobby to face up to the fact that what is good for Israel is
not necessarily good for the United States. The Mideast is not best
viewed through Israeli interests, and there is much more at stake than
Israel's welfare.

Pakistan is for all practical purposes under martial law. This is
hardly a surprise outcome. Management of the "war on terror" was
delegated by the Bush administration to strongman General Pervez
Musharraf, who quickly fell in line after being presented with the
alternative of Pakistan being bombed into the stone-age. Musharraf has
managed the situation as well as he could, given his pre-condition that
he stay in power (the economy, for example, has grown nicely during his
tenure). This pre-condition, however, is clearly not acceptable to
Pakistanis, and he is now being forced into elections. For the US, the
shift in focus from Afghanistan, Bin Laden, and Al Qaeda to Iraq, Iran,
and Israel's interests has proved to be seriously distracting.

Our Mideast strategy is managed directly or indirectly by the Israel
Lobby. This Lobby functions as a "monopoly" in the manner of Microsoft.
Until recently, no alternate viewpoints were seriously considered, and
the Israel Lobby has represented itself as the establishment.
Monopolies, however, corrupt the system; Microsoft distorted the
software industry, and the Israel Lobby is corrupting our body politic.
We are now seeing clear and tangible evidence of the consequences of
this betrayal of American interests. Rather than pursue Bin Laden,
vanquish the Taliban, and guide Pakistan towards democracy, the Bush
administration was misdirected into attacking Iraq, and US power is now
being targeted at Israel's perceived enemies such as Iran.

The Israel Lobby has labored at caricaturizing Muslims as natural
enemies of the United States. It has succeeded in skillfully amplifying
Israel's contempt and fear of Arabs, into contempt and fear of Muslims
by mainstream Americans. This has required a sustained campaign, and
the results speak for themselves: after 9/11 80%+ of Muslims the world
over were pro-US, and today a similar percentage is anti-US. Such
swings in public opinion are not accidental, and reflect US actions
under the "war on terror", and a calculated strategy to provoke an
adversary into being.

There are now numerous excellent and well documented books that
describe the Israel Lobby, its machinations, and the detrimental impact
of its pervasive influence. It is time for us to switch our priorities
to other countries that are being neglected at our peril, foreign
policy things that matter, reduce the importance of Israel and its
concerns, and refocus to American interests.
 

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