'Israel uses influence in US, West to get away with crimes against Palestinians'

A political analyst says the Tel Aviv regime uses the enormous influence it wields within the United States and certain other Western countries to “get away with” the crimes it perpetrates against Palestinians.

Jim W. Dean, the managing editor of Veterans Today from Atlanta, told Press TV’s The Debate program that the US does not benefit from its unwavering support for Israel.

“It basically makes the US a cosponsor of Israeli terrorism against its own citizens, including its neighbors,” the commentator said.

He slammed the Tel Aviv regime for trampling on the legitimate rights of Palestinians, saying that “millions of Palestinians have been relegated ethnically to a lower class.”

Dean said certain Western countries are complicit in Israel’s crimes against Palestinians.

“Israel is able to get away with this not only by the political influence in the US but Britain and European countries and their intelligence agencies are also involved in this,” Dean added.

The political analyst described AIPAC as “a prime example of someone that I would want to have for my intelligence operation.”

He said that the American authorities are trying to criminalize any political speech or disagreement over Israel.

In  the US, “You can disagree about anybody or any country on any issue except for Israel,” the commentator said.

“The Americans twisted the hate crime laws ..to say that any criticism of Israel can only be motivated by hate and therefore, anybody that criticizes would be exposed to old hate crime legislation,”  he said.

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‘Israel-US alliance stems from shared Mideast views’

In turn, Founder of American Institute for Foreign Policy, Michael Lane, who was also taking part in the debate, highlighted the influence of AIPAC as the largest pro-Israeli lobby within the US’s political system.

“There is no doubt that the AIPAC is a very influential organization. They have been around for a while. They are good at what they do. They are skilled. They are influential and they have the ear of a lot of people, policy-makers in government both in Capital Hill and in the administration,” said Lane.

He described the relationship between Washington and the Tel Aviv regime as “historical” and said Israel was “a military and economic ally of the United States.”

The political commentator further said that the main reason behind the US’s financial and military support for Israel is that the Tel Aviv regime and Washington share common views in the Middle East region.

“Israel, at times, was very isolated and, in current times, has a number of friends in the area. Basically, our policy is developed and our friendship and our alliances are developed in concern with allies that have in mind the same vision for the region that the United States has. And that’s the primary reason why the United States and Israel get along so well.”

He admitted to the hostile policy pursued by the US towards other countries in the region, including Iran and Syria, and said “those are the countries that have a different view” regarding the developments in the region. “That's why the relationships tend to become more adversarial than alliance-type relationships.”

Since taking office in 2017, US President Donald Trump has been showering Israel with political gifts, including recognizing Jerusalem al-Quds as its “capital” and moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied city as well as cutting aid to the Palestinians and closing the Palestine Liberation Organization’s office in Washington.

Trump has also signed a decree recognizing Israeli “sovereignty” over Syria’s occupied Golan Heights.

Emboldened by the US president’s all-out support, the Tel Aviv regime has in recent months stepped up its settlement construction activities in the occupied lands in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334.

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