Israeli influence has shaped US foreign policy for decades – with profound consequences for war and peace in the Middle East.

The powerful Zionist lobby has a stranglehold on US administrations. It intimidates Congress and the Presidency. That may be changing. The Democratic front runner for the presidency, Gavin Newsom, speaks correctly of Israel as an “apartheid state”

The settler colonisation of Palestine has been ongoing since 1948 starting with the Nakba. In 1948 Palestinians owned 90 per cent of all land. Now they own only 18 per cent. The ongoing killing and displacement of Palestinians on the West Bank shows again the immoral intent of the Israeli government. Israel occupies stolen land and wants to occupy more. It wants to expel all Palestinians from Palestine. It is as brutal as that.

Israel’s endless wars

Israeli violence was there at the beginning. Menachem Begin led the Irgun terrorist group before 1948. He later became the first right-wing prime minister of Israel in 1977. Yitzhak Shamir, described by the British as a “fanatical terrorist leader,” was a member of the Stern Gang (Lehi) in the 1940s and served as Israel’s prime minister twice, from 1983–1984 and 1986–1992. David Ben-Gurion was head of the Jewish Agency and oversaw the Haganah, which was implicated in violent terrorist actions. He later became Israel’s first prime minister. The Haganah was the base upon which was built the IDF.

The Israeli inspired US attack on Iran is a continuation of Israel’s endless violence. At this very moment Israel is occupying all of Lebanon south of the Litani River.

The war on Iran has been 20 years in the making. Jonathan Cook sets out how Israel, supported by the US, set out to destabilise the Middle East in its favour.

Israel ..persuaded a group of hawkish allies in Washington … to work from within the administration of George W Bush to support a long-standing Israeli ambition to Balkanise the Middle East: to use force to collapse the regimes there… They started in earnest with Iraq in 2003, and then planned to move on to Lebanon, Syria and end in Iran. The benefits for Israel were manifold -Regime collapse would weaken Muslim majorities. -Failed states, riven by permanent civil war, would leave Israel free to dominate the region militarily and secure its privileged alliance with Washington. -With the region in chaos, Israel would be free to complete the expulsion of the Palestinian people from what was left of their homeland.

Former NATO commander General Wesley Clark told us as much, when he recounted in 2007 that during a visit to the Pentagon he had been told of a plan, in the immediate wake of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York in 2001, for the US military to “take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq and in Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan and finishing off in Iran."

After the failed first attempt, during Bush’s administration, they rethought their strategy and held off until they believed all the pieces were in place. A genocide in Gaza had Hamas pinned down in the enclave. Hezbollah was largely beaten into submission in Lebanon. And the Syrian state was hollowed out, with the regime of Bashar Assad falling in 2024.

So, Israel urged Trump to attack Iran. Joe Kent – the recently resigned Director of the National Counterterrorism Centre – did not mince words about this Israeli inspired US attack on Iran.

“We started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”

“Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran. This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war.”

The pattern is clear – endless wars by Israel and the US to destroy any administration in the region that seeks justice for Palestinians and an end to Israeli/US aggression.

The lobby

This “powerful American lobby”, including the 30 million Christian Zionists is crippling America. As the Foreign Minister of Oman recently put it “America has lost control of its own foreign policy”

The Zionist/Israeli lobby in the US is extraordinary in its influence. It’s so commonplace and ubiquitous that Donald Trump blurted out last year that because of the financial support of the Jewish Adelsons he “gave them the Golan Heights”. Is there anything more brazen than that?

The lobby provides significant financial support for both parties. It sponsors educational trips to Israel for members of Congress to build sympathy for Israel. It shapes public discourse by leveraging media and think tanks.

American Presidents going back to Truman and Carter have expressed concern about the disproportionate influence of the Israeli lobby in American affairs. Distinguished former US ambassador Charles Freeman said “there is a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired ….the tactics of the Israeli lobby plumb the depths of dishonour and indecency… the aim of this lobby is to control the policy process”. Political scientists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt allege that while “one might assume that the bonds between the two countries is based on shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives, neither of these explanations can account for the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the United States provides to Israel.”

With continual US support there is no sign that Israel will desist from its permanent wars. The “opposition” in the Knesset is non-existent. The extremists in Cabinet that Netanyahu relies on will increase in influence. They are now leading the rampage in the West Bank.

There is a lesson for Israel that change may be underway with many liberal and younger Israelis leaving Israel. About 630,000 Jewish people born in Israel or who had lived there for a significant time are now living elsewhere in the world. Total departures since the current government took office is estimated at over 200,000 mainly with one-way tickets. Nearly one million Israelis have obtained or are seeking second passports as an insurance policy.

The ever-unreliable Donald Trump may yet pull the rug from under the Israelis. Polling in the US reveals that most Americans do not support the Israeli inspired US attack on Iran.

There is no “rally to the flag”.

Iranian resistance

Iran is proving very resilient. Persia and Iran have been unconquered for over 5000 years. Its people are very proud, smart and determined. The US had limited stocks of about 4000 interceptor missiles which costs up to $US10 million each and can’t be rapidly mass produced. By contrast Iran has an almost limitless supply of 80,000 Shahed drones, 10,000 of which can be produced each month for only $US20,000 each. Time is not on Washington’s side.

The war meant to advance Israels’ interests may backfire, like it did in Iraq. The attacks on Iran may accelerate the very transformations it was meant to prevent. Trump has overestimated America’s military omnipotence.

How could such a mentally disordered president fully grasp the catastrophe he has helped Israel unleash. Iran will not agree to a deal that will result in a return US /Israeli attack in six months’ time. Iran will set very firm conditions for any settlement. There will be no regime change.

World opinion as reflected in the UN and its agencies is hostile to Israel. That hostility could change dramatically if it would at last recognise the legitimate rights and humanity of the Palestinian people and live in peace and partnership with them.

Israel will not do that while the US insulates it from the consequences of its immoral behaviour.

Israel’s future will be in jeopardy if it continues to act as an outpost of the US Empire. It must come to terms with its own region and people.

A break in US uncritical and bipartisan support for Israel could open prospects for peace and justice for all in the Middle East.