Shame on you Americans

Show of unanimity as Americans back White House line on Israel
By Alec Russell in Washington

(Filed: 28/07/2006)

When Tony Blair enters the White House today he will pass a lone protester at the gates calling for Israel to halt its offensive in the Lebanon.

In a striking reminder of the ideological chasm between Europe and America, it will probably be the only time in the Prime Minister's four-day US tour that he will come face to face with a critic of Israel.

Democrats and Republicans, liberal chattering classes and conservative evangelicals are as one on Israel, and even newspapers that have been fiercely critical of the Bush administration's conduct of the war in Iraq have fallen into line behind the White House.

Last week the House of Representatives passed a resolution by 410 votes to eight backing Israel against Hizbollah.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser under President Jimmy Carter, who helped to broker the Israel-Egypt Camp David accord, attributed the conformity of opinion in Congress to the power of pro-Israeli groups raising funds for Democrats and Republicans.

With mid-term congressional elections in November and congressmen looking to their campaign war-chests it was hardly surprising that politicians were not speaking out against Israel, he said.

"[Having just] two years in office and [needing] continuous fund-raising and campaigning - that makes you extremely sensitive to anything that undermines your political prospects," he said. Washington's fabled "Israel lobby", one of its most successful political pressure groups, has clearly played a key part in fostering the convergence of interests.

Steven Clemons, the director of the New America Foundation think-tank, said that Israel and its Jewish diaspora had "hijacked America's foreign policy apparatus. "They have sold the case that American national security interests are identical with Israeli national security interests."

Pro-Israeli activists in Washington counter that Israel's interests in the region are identical to America's.

They argue that the fighting in Gaza and southern Lebanon is part of the US-led "war against terrorism".

The increasingly fervent pro-Israeli sentiment of Christian evangelicals, a hugely influential US voting bloc, has also been a major factor in President George W Bush's staunch support for Israel, and the president is widely seen as the best friend Israel has had in the White House.

A third key factor is America's memories of Hizbollah's 1983 attack on the US barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 Americans and marked America's first setback at the hands of Islamic extremists.

Four congressmen of Lebanese descent have said America will regret its stance, but conceded that their attempts to get the House to express more sympathy for Lebanese civilians had no chance.

Representative Ray La-Hood said: "The House tilts so far toward Israel. . . it would be like going into a tsunami."