Israeli lobby in US weakened by BDS movement: Analyst
A legal action that is being taken against the US government’s illegal support for Israel indicates that the worldwide anti-Israeli movement known as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has been successful in weakening the Israeli lobby in the US, says an American political commentator.
Frank O’Brien, a New York-based researcher, made the remarks while discussing a federal lawsuit that states Washington’s aid to Israel is illegal under a decades-old law.
According to Grant Smith, the director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, who has filed the action, the International Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Act, which was passed by the US Congress in 1976, bans aid to non-signatories of the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that possess nuclear weapons, e.g., Israel.
The US has maintained a long-standing policy of keeping silent about Israel’s nuclear arsenal, which is widely believed to contain hundreds of nuclear warheads.
O’Brien told Press TV on Saturday the lawsuit boosts hopes to finally “punch a hole” in the Israeli lobby’s dominance over the US political system as well as the media.
“Up and until now, the Israel lobby has not only controlled the Congress… but also the fact that they control the media over here,” he said. “The media is pretty much run by a Zionist, pro-Israel or Jewish lobby.”
O’Brien hailed the BDS movement’s success despite overwhelming pressure from Israel, expressing hope that the case would eventually allow a legal basis to stop Washington’s unconditional support for Israel.
The BDS was initiated in 2005 by over 170 Palestinian organizations that were pushing for “various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law.”
Since then, thousands of volunteers worldwide have joined the BDS to help promote the Palestinian cause.
Washington has been providing the Israeli regime with $3.1 billion annually since a 2007 agreement with the administration of former president George W. Bush.
Israel has indicated that it wants $4 billion to $4.5 billion in aid as part of a new deal that will go into effect from 2018.
US military assistance to Israel has amounted to $124.3 billion since it began in 1962, according to a recent congressional report.
“So this lawsuit is at least the beginning shot towards, hopefully, going after somebody like Israel who best represents the worst kind of Islamophobia that goes on,” the analyst noted.
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