COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE INDEPENDENT
As Donald Trump's
emissary to Israel, Mike Pence is looking to a future in which he calls the
White House home
No, what's going on is more urgent than 2020.
It's about the 2018 Congressional elections, in which, before
this, it seemed very likely Republicans would lose control.
Pence is doing urgent missionary work in Israel.
Yes, we'll move the embassy even sooner. Yes, we kill the
Iran nuclear agreement.
In return, the Israel Lobby in the US will shower key Republicans
with campaign finance gold. And money is extremely important in US elections.
The high-end papers and broadcasters - all in fact owned by
Jewish Americans whose publications are doggedly loyal to Israel - will also
shower them with favorable publicity and play down anything bad which happens.
The latter I am certain is what Trump's whole sudden lurch
on the embassy was about.
He has been clubbed by the high-end press from the
beginning.
It is a certainty we will begin to see a gentle change. He
will be treated much more respectfully.
After all, I don't know whether readers appreciate the fact,
but the New York Times, for example, submits every story having anything to do
with Israel to the official Israeli Censor before it publishes.
Deference like this is typical too of the Washington Post or
networks like CBS.
It was Harry Truman who first showed American politicians
what the Lobby could do.
He was losing to Thomas Dewey in the polls at the time the
self-declared Israel sought American recognition.
Truman was reluctant in light of all that was happening in
Palestine - including massacres - to grant recognition.
He was tirelessly lobbied, and he finally relented.
Well, he won, by a small margin, but he won. Favorable
publicity and lots of campaign funds plus smart operators coming to work for
the campaign saved the day.
Truman actually wrote about the almost headache-inducing
lobbying he was subjected to before he gave in.
The example was not lost.
By Lyndon Johnson's day, lobbying for Israel was becoming an
industry. Johnson set the further example of granting Israel the early version
of the massive foreign aid it now receives as subsidy.
So, the pattern was established gradually of lobby for Israel,
and Israel actually ends up not only with benefits, many of which may be
unwarranted, but with money.
An American Congressman voting on Israel-oriented bills is
carefully monitored for his correctness. After all, the same help can be
shifted to the opposition, adding a stick as well as carrot.
When a Congressman votes for Israel, he is assured of
support. He or she never considers that effectively a shell game is going on;
money or benefits go to Israel from the American Treasury, and the Congressman
gets financial and publicity support for his or her vote.
By the way, the system is so advanced and developed today
that every freshman Congressman is given an invitation to a little
all-expenses-paid holiday in Israel where he or she will be wined and dined and
royally propagandized.
Any Congressman not accepting the invitation can pretty well
be certain his next election (every two years) will be a very difficult one.
