 AMERICA'S
DEFENSE LINE: The Justice Department's Battle to Register the
Israel Lobby as Agents of a Foreign Government
by Grant F. Smith
 Hardcover and
Paperback available at:
Praise for America's
Defense Line
"In America's Defense
Line, Grant Smith has penetrated once again into the murky
waters that underlie the observable control of US Middle East
policy by Israel
and its aggressive American support base that have undermined
the efforts of successive US administrations, be they Democrat
or Republican, to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict. In
Foreign Agents and now in America's Defense Line, using
recently declassified documents, Smith exposes the charade that
the 'pro-Israel lobby' is simply a well-organized, overly
zealous group functioning within the spirit of traditional
American political advocacy. What we see is something far more
sinister. America's Defense Line should be required
reading for anyone concerned with preserving what is left of the
US political process."
Jeffrey Blankfort is the former
editor of the Middle East Labor Bulletin and hosts the
international affairs program "Takes on the World" on KZYX Pacifica Radio in Mendocino, California.
"Grant Smith renders great
service. The secret documents reviewed in this volume will help
any reader understand how a small but determined group of
zealots for Israel have placed the United States in grave
danger. It is a wakeup call that must be answered, if our noble
experiment in representative government, which has long
proclaimed justice for all people in all lands everywhere, is to
survive. I choose those words carefully. This is no time to
sit on our hands. Unwarranted fear of Israel has plunged us into
an abyss that gets deeper all the time. All that is needed is a
civilized discussion, one that this volume must surely bring
forth."
Paul Findley, Member of Congress 1961-83, author of three
books on the U.S.-Israeli relationship, including the Washington
Post bestseller "They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions
Confront Israel's Lobby"
"This is vital
reading for anyone interested in what really guides American
attitudes towards Israel. Grant F. Smith reveals how the almost
universal misunderstanding of the Israel-Palestine question in
the United States, and the blind support for Israel in
Government, the media and public opinion are not sentimental
accident, but the result of assiduous plotting and planning by
Israel, its agents, and friends to subvert the American system
and freedom of speech over more than half a century."
Tim Llewellyn, former BBC Middle East Correspondent
"The
Israel lobby is one of the most influential interest groups in
American history. Yet there is insufficient public knowledge
about its origins and operations. Grant Smith's new book is a
major step forward in correcting that problem. He provides a
fascinating�and disturbing�account of how I.L. Kenen laid the
groundwork for AIPAC, the most powerful organization in the
lobby." John J. Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison
Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the
University of Chicago and the author with Stephen M. Walt of
"The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" (2007)
"Grant F. Smith has taken
on one of the most powerful lobbies in the United States and American
politics. His writing and research has pointed to the great
danger that the Israel lobby�in particular AIPAC�represents to American
democracy. It is essential for any knowledgeable American
to subscribe to the work of IRmep which Grant F. Smith leads.
More important, buy this book on the Israel lobby's role in
subverting American foreign policy."
James Petras is a Bartle
Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New
York.
"This
is an excellent book that brings together declassified material
showing how the Israel lobby managed to sow corruption at the
highest levels of the US government and even break US law. Like
other excellent books by the author (e.g. Deadly Dogma
and Foreign Agents), America's Defense Line breaks
new ground in research into the destructive role of narrow
special interests in US domestic and foreign affairs. This
latest contribution is a tour de force and is a must read for
anyone interested to understand why we are embroiled in the
quagmire of the Middle East and how we might get out of it (thus
saving our economy and our global reputation)." Dr. Mazin
Qumsiyeh, Professor at
Bethlehem University and author
of "Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the
Israeli-Palestinian Struggle"
"Once again, Grant Smith has produced groundbreaking research
into the nuts and bolts of how Israeli partisans break U.S. laws
and get away with it � decade after decade. This essential
reading lays to rest oft-repeated myths about the 'special
relationship.' The corrupt essence of that
relationship has been kept secret from American voters for 43
years. America's Defense Line provides a declassified
and thorough damage assessment." Alison Weir is the
Executive Director of IfAmericansKnew.org
"It has been a long honeymoon, but it may at last be coming to
an end. The neoconservatives and the Iraq war have had the
positive effect of exposing the ways that an ultra-Zionist
agenda hurts the American interest (a subject of another Grant
F. Smith book). And so today a new debate over Zionism has begun
in America: how pro-Israel should the United States be? And how
pro-Israel should the American Jewish community be? Given the
success and power of Jews in this country, a factor that I.L.
Kenen [the founder of AIPAC] and his adversaries would never
have anticipated, this is not just an ethnic conversation; it is
one that all Americans can join. I hope that the light Smith
shines on a period in which Jews were far more ambivalent about
Zionism will help to restart that debate." Philip Weiss,
writes for The Nation, The New York Observer,
The American Conservative and Mondoweiss
About the Book
An unforeseen effect of
the
Iraq war is allowing more Americans to speak freely about the
role of the Israel lobby. When and how was it born? While it is
generally understood that American interest groups played a
crucial role in the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and
supporting politicians who would stand up for Israel, other
facts have remained elusive.
Grant F. Smith reveals
that many of the functions the Israel lobby smoothly and quietly
executes in political life today were formed in the late 1950s
and early 1960s: the crucial political contributions and
unrelenting campaign to convince Americans that Israel and the
United States share common interests and enemies, whether the
old Communist bloc�or Islamic radicals in the 21st century.
Smith documents the lobby's awesome resistance to public
accountability for its actions from Congress and the Justice
Department. That fascinating history is the terrain of this
book.
Referencing over 1,000
previously classified documents released under a Freedom of
Information Act filing, Smith follows Isaiah L. Kenen's path
from registered foreign agent for the Israeli government to
founder of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or AIPAC.
Smith unearths a formerly secret non-prosecution agreement, the
"subvention caveat" reached between the
Israel
lobby and the US Department of Justice. The agreement reveals a
great deal about the operational latitude of the lobby and the
US government's institutional aversion to challenging it.
America's Defense Line may forever change the debate about
US Middle East policy formulation.
Page Count:
340 pages
Language: English
Paperback ISBN: 0-9764437-5-9
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches |
