The Zionist Connection II

By Alfred M. Lilienthal. New Brunswick, New Jersey: North American Publishers, 1982. 904 pp. $9.95 (paperback)

Reviewed by Grace Halsell

It is indeed welcome news that Alfred Lilienthal's monumental book, that so thoroughly documents the Zionist influence in American society, has been published in a reasonably priced paperback edition.

In this update of his original work, published by Dodd, Mead, in 1978, Lilienthal gives us an addition of some 40 pages that cover the last five years in the Middle East.

No one, to my mind, has provided us with better researched, better documented material than Lilienthal, one of America's foremost anti-Zionist Jews. His book is an amassment of facts, an encyclopedia that covers the story of Zionism from every angle both in Palestine and in the United States.

In the new edition, Lilienthal highlights examples of how the U.S. serves the Zionists. First, take the case of the President and candidates for that office. In the last election, all 12 Democratic and Republican aspirants, with the exception of a vacillating John Connally, bowed completely to Zionist power. To help him win Jewish votes, candidate Reagan appointed the ardent Israelist Maxwell Rabb as his campaign committee vice chairman.

Vetting the Staff

Once in office, Reagan hired pro-Israel staff advisors, including Joseph Churba, a long-time friend of the militant Jewish Defense League leader Meir Kahane, as well as two Israeli citizens, Edward Luttwak and Uri Raanan.

The Reagan Administration also placed ardent Zionists, including Sherwood Goldberg, Harvey Sicherman and David Korn, in critical State Department posts, where vital policymaking decisions affecting Israel are made.

Other Zionists whom the Reagan Administration chose were Myer Rashish, as Undersecretary for Economic Affairs, and Paul Wolfowitz, as Director of the Policy Planning Staff. For additional advice involving the U.S.-Israel special relationship, the President called in two veteran pro-Israel fundraisers, Detroit's Max Fisher and Ted Cummings of Los Angeles.

The Reagan Administration also designated Richard Perle, formerly Senator Jackson's principal liaison with pro-Israel groups, as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy. Perle promptly appointed as consultant Stephen Bryen, whom Justice Department officials had earlier said was suspected by them of espionage for Israel. Lilienthal writes that the Republicans, coming to power with the deepest anti-Soviet sentiment, viewed the Palestinians, and the PLO in particular, as an integral part of the Communist vortex. Although such a polarization was dangerous to the rest of the world, this viewpoint nevertheless was "most pleasing to the Israelis."

Whatever actions of aggression the Israelis take, Lilienthal says, they may expect ultimate, if not immediate, American endorsement.

Take the case of Israel's raid on the Iraqi nuclear facilities. As Lilienthal reminds us, eight F-16 jet fighter bombers, newly acquired from American factories and escorted by six F-15s, flew from an Etzion, Sinai airbase and destroyed Iraq's $260 million nuclear reactor complex, about 10 miles southwest of Baghdad and more than 500 miles from Israel. Reagan declared Israel may have sincerely believed the raid was a defensive move, and he added: "It is very difficult for me to envision Israel as being a threat to its neighbors."

The Mossad-CIA Connection

Since the American CIA and Israel's Mossad, are as close as two peas in a pod, it was hard to believe that Washington was not aware of Israel's intent," Lilienthal writes. He quotes an Israeli newspaper report that "Israel relied on U.S. intelligence data before deciding to carry out its bombing attack."

As another example of how Zionists turn U.S. foreign policy into "nonsensical inconsistencies," Lilienthal writes that "the U.S. was giving aid to Iranian exiles battling the Ayatollah while Israel was permitted in 1981 and 1982 to ship U.S. arms to assist the Khomeini regime in its war with Iraq." He adds that Washington gave covert approval to Israel's support of Teheran and to the Israeli goal of downing the Saddam Hussein regime, until Washington became alarmed lest an impending Iraqi defeat endanger other 'moderate' friendly Arab Gulf regimes."

Lilienthal's additional material brings us through the summer of 1982's Israeli genocide in Lebanon, with the killing and wounding of 40,000 Palestinians and Lebanese. In the midst of this, Reagan received Begin in the Oval office. And Congress voted more aid to Israel. Lilienthal believes one thing is certain: the U.S. will never "start acting like a great nation" as long as an Israeli prime minister can instantaneously rally American Jews behind him for Zionist goals-while ignoring American national interests.

The book concludes with a warning that since the U.S. military presence in the Middle East has greatly expanded, and the arms race continues to escalate, the tragedy of nuclear war could—without a miraculous breakthrough—envelop that area and the world.

Grace Halsell is the author of Journey To Jerusalem and was a White House speechwriter during the Johnson Administration.