US ruling class ‘unnerved’ by Israel’s extremist policies: Analyst

A divide is emerging among the political elite in the United States concerning the US-Israeli relationship, which is increasingly being viewed as a "liability" to the US government, a political analyst from Virginia says.

“There does seem to be a bit of tension among the ranks of the power elite, among the ranks of the foreign policy establishment in the United States about a number of issues,” said Keith Preston, chief editor and director of Attack the System, a website dedicated to encouraging revolt against domestic and foreign US government policies.

“There are sections of the American political establishment and the American ruling class generally that are becoming a bit unnerved by the kind of extremism they see coming from Israel,” Preston told Press TV on Sunday.

“They see the oppression of the Palestinians, they see the belligerence of the Netanyahu government,” he added. 

Preston said US Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent warnings to Israel over its opposition to the Iran nuclear accord is reflective of the fact that the “power elite in the United States are not as subservient to Israel as they once were.”

During remarks before the Council on Foreign Relations on Friday, Kerry said Tel Aviv will be blamed if Congress rejects the recently announced Iranian nuclear agreement. “I fear that what could happen is if Congress were to overturn it, our friends Israel could actually wind up being more isolated and more blamed.”

Preston said, “The US-Israeli relationship is cracking, and I think it’s because increasingly, Israel is coming to be regarded as a liability.”

“The pro-Israel forces in the United States that dominate American foreign policy in the Middle East are increasingly becoming a liability and are being regarded as forces that are essentially taking a provocative stance against other nations in ways that really don’t serve the interests of the United States,” he added.

Iran and the P5+1 group -- the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany –  reached a conclusion on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on July 14 in the Austrian capital of Vienna following days of intense talks over Tehran’s nuclear program.

The White House has launched an aggressive campaign in an effort to sell the nuclear accord to congressional skeptics, who have until September 17 to review and potentially vote down the agreement.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the biggest Israeli lobby group in the US, is deploying hundreds of lobbyists on Capitol Hill to try to convince lawmakers to vote against the JCPOA.

US President Barack Obama has vowed to veto any congressional resolution seeking to reject the nuclear agreement with Iran, seen as the most significant foreign policy achievement of his presidency.

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