US candidates should prove loyalty to Israel

Canadian journalist, Eric Walberg believes that any US candidate who may present a threat for Israel will have a slim chance in any presidential elections.

He made the remarks in an interview with the Qods News Agency (Qodsna) the full text of which follows.

Qodsna: In your opinion, why do both of the candidates support Israel in their campaigns?

Walberg: Americans were/are aghast at the spectacle of an unashamed puppet of bankers (Clinton), who challenges Russia openly to start WWIII, facing off against a lascivious fool.

But American election campaigns can turn up occasional moments of sanity.

One of the few sparks of hope in 2016 was the surprise nomination of Donald Trump as the Republican candidate.

By all accounts a buffoon, but just as a broken clock tells the correct time twice a day, Trump revealed moments of truth, like "Russia wants to get rid of ISIS. We want to get rid of ISIS. Maybe let Russia do it. Let them get rid of ISIS. What the hell do we care?"

This high point in the electoral scrapping recalls the presidential primaries in 1968, when the dark horse Democrat, Senator Eugene McCarthy, stunned political analysts by leaping ahead of the pack with his promise to pull the troops out of Vietnam immediately (his campaign was wrecked in the end).

Similarly in the Republican primaries in 2008, where libertarian Ron Paul jumped ahead, calling for a new foreign policy "to mind our own business", and was treated to thunderous applause.

Taking the Iraq attack in 2003 to a new level, he held a press conference with the ex-CIA analyst and author of Imperial Hubris Michael Scheuer to explain the concept of blowback.

Scheuer countered the accusation that Paul was following marching orders from al-Qaeda, by saying: "It is all of the Democrats and the Republicans who are marching to Osama Bin Laden's drum."

Paul's campaign, too, fell apart but at least got the truth out and lit a new spark of sanity that still won't go out.

Trump doesn't come close to McCarthy or Paul, and his Quixotic campaign will surely collapse, but like them, he bucked the imperialist foreign policy, keeping a breath of sanity in the air.

Israel controls American politics.

We can't blame Israel for Vietnam, but we can blame it for Iraq and for today's mess in the Middle East, and for the election of Clinton, and the defeat of any candidate who threatens Israel's agenda.

The Middle East would quickly move to peace if the US cut off its $3 billions yearly payment to Israel keep the Muslim world weak and divided.

The US and Israel play 'good cop, bad cop', with Israel so outrageous, it makes the US look reasonable.

Like Paul in 2007, Trump initially sounded like he meant business, ready to buck Israel's stranglehold, but he quickly backtracked.

He realized he had no chance at all if he didn't accept Israel as the ruler in the Middle East.

Qodsna: Why do both Clinton and Trump beg for the consent of the Israel lobby, especially AIPAC?

Walberg: The Israel lobby, headed by AIPAC controls US politics through 'soft power'.

No need to invade to conquer.

Just control the media, have lots of money, and orchestrate public life to pursue a Zionist agenda.

Apart from the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), their best-known vehicles are right wing think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) and New America.

New America's Anatol Lieven doesn't mince words in “The push for war” (2002): “Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s...the basic and generally agreed plan is unilateral world domination through absolute military superiority.”

That of course means US-Israel.

Both Republicans and Democrats are caught in this web.

At least Trump, in his naive worldview, sees no compelling logic in this lust for world domination.

He wants to reduce military rivalry, work in harmony with Russia, rebuild America's rotting infrastructure.

His bigotry on Iran is worrisome, but if he wins, he will discredit himself on any attempts to vilify Iran.

Those days are over, opening the way for Iran to work patiently with others also fed up with the US and Israel.

His campaign had no chance from the start, but at least helps expose the bankruptcy of US democracy.

Think of Trump as The Joker in the film The Dark Knight (2008): “I’m not a schemer. I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are.”

He knows the schemers, Hillary and "international bankers" will sabotage his Quixotic mission to "make America great again."

Do we want the Joker or the bankers' puppet to rule the world? There is a choice, but it is "between the evil of two lessers."

Qodsna: Considering both candidates, is there going to be an improvement for Palestinian suffering in the future?

Walberg: There have been many eloquent, muckraking books exposing the Israel lobby's stranglehold on the US.

One that still stands out is Stephen Walton and John Mearsheimer's The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy (2007), published when the whole nation was writhing from the nightmare of the Iraq war.

This public angst allowed a window of opportunity to open on the truth.

"Ending the [Palestinian/Israeli] conflict should be seen as a national security priority for the United States.

But this will not happen as long as the lobby makes it impossible for American leaders to use the leverage at their disposal to pressure Israel into ending the occupation and creating a viable Palestinian state."

Ten years later, nothing has changed, except in the minds of intelligent Americans.

Those fighters for the Palestinian cause in North America have an long uphill battle.

But just as 'Trump vs Clinton' discredits US democracy in the world, Israeli persecution of Palestinians in the name of 'democracy' in the Middle East continues to eat away at its international standing.

It is not much different in Canada.

As one of his first foreign policy acts, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approved a parliamentary resolution condemning the Boycott, Divestment and Sancions campaign by Canadians frustrated with Canadian kowtowing to Israel.

Many US states have done likewise.

The only way things will improve for Palestine is if North Americans continue to stand up and fight to protest their governments' cowardice in the face of Israel's powerful influence on governments here.

Public action and prayer are all honest people can offer in the West at this point.