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- "It
makes no sense at all to try to deny the reality of Jewish power
and prominence in popular culture." --
Michael Medved, well-known Jewish author and respected film
critic.
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For decades Israel has violated well
established precepts of international law and defied numerous
United Nations resolutions in its occupation of conquered lands,
in extra-judicial killings, and in its repeated acts of military
aggression.
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Most of the world regards Israel's
policies, and especially its oppression of Palestinians, as
outrageous and criminal. This international consensus is
reflected, for example, in numerous UN resolutions condemning
Israel, which have been approved with overwhelming majorities.
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"The whole world," United
Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan recently said, "is
demanding that Israel withdraw [from occupied Palestinian
territories]. I don't think the whole world ... can be wrong."
[note 1]
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Only in the United States do
politicians and the media still fervently support Israel and its
policies. For decades the US has provided Israel with crucial
military, diplomatic and financial backing, including more than
$3 billion each year in aid.
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Why is the U.S. the only remaining
bastion of support for Israel?
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Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa,
who was awarded the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, has candidly
identified the reason: "The Israeli government is placed on
a pedestal [in the US], and to criticize it is to be immediately
dubbed anti-Semitic," he said. "People are scared in
this country, to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is
powerful -- very powerful." [note 2]
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Bishop Tutu spoke the truth.
Although Jews make up only about three percent of the US
population, they wield immense power and influence -- vastly more
than any other ethnic or religious group.
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As Jewish author and political
science professor, Benjamin Ginsberg, has pointed out: [note 3]
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"Since the 1960s, Jews have
come to wield considerable influence in American economic,
cultural, intellectual and political life. Jews played a central
role in American finance during the 1980s, and they were among
the chief beneficiaries of that decade's corporate mergers and
reorganizations."
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Today, though barely two percent of
the nation's population is Jewish, close to half its billionaires
are Jews. The chief executive officers of the three major
television networks and the four largest film studios are Jews,
as are the owners of the nation's largest newspaper chain and the
most influential single newspaper, the New York Times ... The
role and influence of Jews in American politics is equally
marked.
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Jews are only two percent of the
nation's population yet comprise eleven percent of what this
study defines as the nation's elite. However, Jews constitute
more than 25 percent of the elite journalists and publishers,
more than 17 percent of the leaders of important voluntary and
public interest organizations, and more than 15 percent of the
top ranking civil servants.
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Stephen Steinlight, former Director
of National Affairs of the American Jewish Committee, similarly
notes the "disproportionate political power" of Jews,
which is "pound for pound the greatest of any
ethnic/cultural group in America." He goes on to explain
that "Jewish economic influence and power are
disproportionately concentrated in Hollywood, television, and in
the news industry." [note 4]
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Two well-known Jewish writers,
Seymour Lipset and Earl Raab, pointed out in their 1995 book,
Jews and the New American Scene: [note 5]
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"During the last three decades
Jews [in the United States] have made up 50 percent of the top
two hundred intellectuals ... 20 percent of professors at the
leading universities ... 40 percent of partners in the leading
law firms in New York and Washington ... 59 percent of the
directors, writers, and producers of the 50 top-grossing motion
pictures from 1965 to 1982, and 58 percent of directors, writers,
and producers in two or more primetime television series."
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The influence of American Jewry in
Washington, notes the Israeli daily Jerusalem Post, is "far
disproportionate to the size of the community, Jewish leaders and
U.S. official acknowledge. But so is the amount of money they
contribute to [election] campaigns." One member of the
influential Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations "estimated Jews alone had contributed 50
percent of the funds for [President Bill] Clinton's 1996
re-election campaign." [note 6] .
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"It makes no sense at all to
try to deny the reality of Jewish power and prominence in popular
culture," acknowledges Michael Medved, a well-known Jewish
author and film critic. "Any list of the most influential
production executives at each of the major movie studios will
produce a heavy majority of recognizably Jewish names."
[note 7]
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One person who has carefully studied
this subject is Jonathan J. Goldberg, now editor of the
influential Jewish community weekly 'Forward.' In his 1996 book,
Jewish Power, he wrote: [note 8]
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"In a few key sectors of the
media, notably among Hollywood studio executives, Jews are so
numerically dominant that calling these businesses
Jewish-controlled is little more than a statistical observation
... Hollywood at the end of the twentieth century is still an
industry with a pronounced ethnic tinge. Virtually all the senior
executives at the major studios are Jews. Writers, producers, and
to a lesser degree directors are disproportionately Jewish -- one
recent study showed the figure as high as 59 percent among
top-grossing films."
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The combined weight of so many Jews
in one of America's most lucrative and important industries gives
the Jews of Hollywood a great deal of political power. They are a
major source of money for Democratic candidates.
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Reflecting their role in the
American media, Jews are routinely portrayed as high-minded,
altruistic, trustworthy, compassionate, and deserving of sympathy
and support. While millions of Americans readily accept such
stereotyped imagery, not everyone is impressed.
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"I am very angry with some of
the Jews," complained actor Marlon Brando during a 1996
interview. "They know perfectly well what their
responsibilities are ... Hollywood is run by Jews. It's owned by
Jews, and they should have a greater sensitivity about the issue
of people who are suffering." [note 9]
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A Well-Entrenched Factor
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The intimidating power of the
"Jewish lobby" is not a new phenomenon, but has long
been an important factor in American life.
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In 1941 Charles Lindbergh spoke
about the danger of Jewish power in the media and government. The
shy 39-year-old -- known around the world for his epic 1927 New
York to Paris flight, the first solo trans-Atlantic crossing --
was addressing 7,000 people in Des Moines, Iowa, on September 11,
1941, about the dangers of US involvement in the war then raging
in Europe. The three most important groups pressing America into
war, he explained, were the British, the Jews, and the Roosevelt
administration.
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Of the Jews, he said: "Their
greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and
influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our
government." Lindbergh went on:
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"For reasons which are
understandable from their viewpoint as they are inadvisable from
ours, for reasons which are not American, [they] wish to involve
us in the war. We cannot blame them for looking out for what they
believe to be their own interests, but we must also look out for
ours. We cannot allow the natural passions and prejudices of
other peoples to lead our country to destruction."
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In 1978, Jewish American scholar
Alfred M. Lilienthal wrote in his detailed study, The Zionist
Connection: [note 10]
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"How has the Zionist will been
imposed on the American people?... It is the Jewish connection,
the tribal solidarity among themselves and the amazing pull on
non-Jews, that has molded this unprecedented power ... In the
larger metropolitan areas, the Jewish-Zionist connection
thoroughly pervades affluent financial, commercial, social,
entertainment, and art circles."
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As a result of the Jewish grip on
the media, wrote Lilienthal, news coverage of the
Israel-Palestine conflict in American television, newspapers and
magazines is relentlessly sympathetic to Israel. This is
manifest, for example, in the misleading portrayal of Palestinian
"terrorism." As Lilienthal put it: "One-sided
reportage on terrorism, in which cause is never related to
effect, was assured because the most effective component of the
Jewish connection is probably that of media control."
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One-Sided 'Holocaust' History
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The Jewish hold on cultural and
academic life has had a profound impact on how Americans look at
the past. Nowhere is the well-entrenched Judeocentric view of
history more obvious than in the "Holocaust" media
campaign, which focuses on the fate of Jews in Europe during
World War II.
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Israeli Holocaust historian Yehuda
Bauer, a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has
remarked: [note 11]
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"Whether presented
authentically or inauthentically, in accordance with the
historical facts or in contradiction to them, with empathy and
understanding or as monumental kitsch, the Holocaust has become a
ruling symbol of our culture ... Hardly a month goes by without a
new TV production, a new film, a new drama, new books, prose or
poetry, dealing with the subject, and the flood is increasing
rather than abating."
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Non-Jewish suffering simply does not
merit comparable attention. Overshadowed in the focus on Jewish
victimization are, for example, the tens of millions of victims
of America's World War II ally, Stalinist Russia, along with the
tens of millions of victims of China's Maoist regime, as well as
the 12 to 14 million Germans, victims of the flight and expulsion
of 1944-1949, of whom some two million lost their lives.
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The well-financed Holocaust media
and "educational" campaign is crucially important to
the interests of Israel. Paula Hyman, a professor of modern
Jewish history at Yale University, has observed: "With
regard to Israel, the Holocaust may be used to forestall
political criticism and suppress debate; it reinforces the sense
of Jews as an eternally beleaguered people who can rely for their
defense only upon themselves. The invocation of the suffering
endured by the Jews under the Nazis often takes the place of
rational argument, and is expected to convince doubters of the
legitimacy of current Israeli government policy." [note 12]
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Norman Finkelstein, a Jewish scholar
who has taught political science at City University of New York
(Hunter College), says in his book, 'The Holocaust Industry,'
that "invoking The Holocaust" is "a ploy to
delegitimize all criticism of Jews."[note 13] "By
conferring total blamelessness on Jews, the Holocaust dogma
immunizes Israel and American Jewry from legitimate censure. ...
Organized Jewry has exploited the Nazi holocaust to deflect
criticism of Israel's and its own morally indefensible policies."
He writes of the brazen "shakedown" of Germany,
Switzerland and other countries by Israel and organized Jewry "to
extort billions of dollars." "The Holocaust,"
Finkelstein predicts, "may yet turn out to be the 'greatest
robbery in the history of mankind'."
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Jews in Israel feel free to act
brutally against Arabs, writes Israeli journalist Ari Shavit,
"believing with absolute certitude that now, with the White
House, the Senate and much of the American media in our hands,
the lives of others do not count as much as our own." [note
14]
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Admiral Thomas Moorer, former
Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has spoken with blunt
exasperation about the Jewish-Israeli hold on the United States:
[note 15]
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"I've never seen a President --
I don't care who he is -- stand up to them [the Israelis]. It
just boggles the mind. They always get what they want. The
Israelis know what is going on all the time. I got to the point
where I wasn't writing anything down. If the American people
understood what a grip those people have got on our government,
they would rise up in arms. Our citizens certainly don't have any
idea what goes on."
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Today, the danger is greater than
ever. Israel and Jewish organizations, in collaboration with this
country's pro-Zionist Christian fundamentalist "amen
corner," are prodding the United States -- the world's
foremost military and economic power -- into new wars against
Israel's enemies.
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As the French ambassador in London
recently acknowledged, Israel -- which he called (a quote which
shocked millions -ed) "that shitty little country" --
is a threat to world peace. "Why should the world be in
danger of World War III because of those people?," he said.
[note 16]
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In summation:
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Jews wield immense power and
influence in the United States.
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The "Jewish lobby" is a
decisive factor in US support for Israel.
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Jewish-Zionist interests are not
identical to American interests. In fact, they often conflict.
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As long as the "very powerful"
Jewish lobby remains entrenched, there will be no end to the
systematic Jewish-Zionist distortion of current affairs and
history, the Jewish-Zionist domination of the U.S. political
system, Zionist oppression of Palestinians, the bloody conflict
between Jews and non-Jews in the Middle East, and the Israeli
threat to peace.
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Notes:
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1. Quoted in Forward (New York
City), April 19, 2002, p. 11. 2. D. Tutu, "Apartheid in the
Holy Land," The Guardian (Britain), April 29, 2002. 3.
Benjamin Ginsberg, The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State
(University of Chicago, 1993), pp. 1, 103. 4. S. Steinlight, "The
Jewish Stake in America's Changing Demography: Reconsidering a
Misguided Immigration Policy," Center for Immigration
Studies , Nov. 2001.
http://www.cis.org/articles/2001/back1301.html 5. Seymour Martin
Lipset and Earl Raab, Jews and the New American Scene (Harvard
Univ. Press, 1995), pp. 26-27. 6. Janine Zacharia, "The
Unofficial Ambassadors of the Jewish State," The Jerusalem
Post (Israel), April 2, 2000. Reprinted in "Other Voices,"
June 2000, p. OV-4, a supplement to The Washington Report on
Middle East Affairs. 7. M. Medved, "Is Hollywood Too
Jewish?," Moment, Vol. 21, No. 4 (1996), p. 37. 8. Jonathan
Jeremy Goldberg, Jewish Power: Inside the American Jewish
Establishment (Addison-Wesley, 1996), pp. 280, 287-288. See also
pp. 39-40, 290-291. 9. Interview with Larry King, CNN network,
April 5, 1996. "Brando Remarks," Los Angeles Times,
April 8, 1996, p. F4 (OC). A short time later, Brando was obliged
to apologize for his remarks. 10. A. Lilienthal, The Zionist
Connection (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1978), pp. 206, 218, 219, 229.
11. From a 1992 lecture, published in: David Cesarani, ed., The
Final Solution: Origins and Implementation (London and New York:
Routledge, 1994), pp. 305, 306. 12. Paula E. Hyman, "New
Debate on the Holocaust," The New York Times Magazine ,
Sept. 14, 1980, p. 79. 13. Norman G. Finkelstein, The Holocaust
Industry (London, New York: Verso, 2000), pp. 130, 138, 139, 149.
14. The New York Times, May 27, 1996. Shavit is identified as a
columnist for Ha'aretz, a Hebrew-language Israeli daily
newspaper, "from which this article is adapted." 15.
Interview with Moorer, Aug. 24, 1983. Quoted in: Paul Findley,
They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel's
Lobby (Lawrence Hill, 1984 and 1985), p. 161. 16. D. Davis,
"French Envoy to UK: Israel Threatens World Peace,"
Jerusalem Post, Dec. 20, 2001. The French ambassador is Daniel
Bernard.6/02
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About the author
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Mark Weber is director of the
Institute for Historical Review. He studied history at the
University of Illinois (Chicago), the University of Munich,
Portland State University and Indiana University (M.A., 1977).
For nine years he served as editor of the IHR's Journal of
Historical Review. www.ihr.org
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