Israeli influence has shaped US foreign policy for decades – with profound consequences for war and peace in the Middle East.

The powerful Zionist lobby has a stranglehold on US administrations. It intimidates Congress and the Presidency. That may be changing. The Democratic front runner for the presidency, Gavin Newsom, speaks correctly of Israel as an “apartheid state”

The settler colonisation of Palestine has been ongoing since 1948 starting with the Nakba. In 1948 Palestinians owned 90 per cent of all land. Now they own only 18 per cent. The ongoing killing and displacement of Palestinians on the West Bank shows again the immoral intent of the Israeli government. Israel occupies stolen land and wants to occupy more. It wants to expel all Palestinians from Palestine. It is as brutal as that.

Israel’s endless wars

Israeli violence was there at the beginning. Menachem Begin led the Irgun terrorist group before 1948. He later became the first right-wing prime minister of Israel in 1977. Yitzhak Shamir, described by the British as a “fanatical terrorist leader,” was a member of the Stern Gang (Lehi) in the 1940s and served as Israel’s prime minister twice, from 1983–1984 and 1986–1992. David Ben-Gurion was head of the Jewish Agency and oversaw the Haganah, which was implicated in violent terrorist actions. He later became Israel’s first prime minister. The Haganah was the base upon which was built the IDF.

The Israeli inspired US attack on Iran is a continuation of Israel’s endless violence. At this very moment Israel is occupying all of Lebanon south of the Litani River.

The war on Iran has been 20 years in the making. Jonathan Cook sets out how Israel, supported by the US, set out to destabilise the Middle East in its favour.

Israel ..persuaded a group of hawkish allies in Washington … to work from within the administration of George W Bush to support a long-standing Israeli ambition to Balkanise the Middle East: to use force to collapse the regimes there… They started in earnest with Iraq in 2003, and then planned to move on to Lebanon, Syria and end in Iran. The benefits for Israel were manifold -Regime collapse would weaken Muslim majorities. -Failed states, riven by permanent civil war, would leave Israel free to dominate the........

© Pearls and Irritations